Tamatem is a Jordanian company that imposes itself in the electronic games market for smartphones

picture

Its motto is a tomato, not an apple. But in just eight years, Jordan's Tamatem has already carved out a large part of the lucrative market for Arabic-language mobile games.


The company's founder and CEO, Hossam Hammo, 38, says that "Arabic content on the Internet does not exceed 1%, despite the presence of more than 400 million Arab users of smart mobile phones."


"There is a very big gap in this market that we are trying to fill," the businessman adds from his elegant office in Amman.


Hammo founded the “Tomato” company in 2013, and it was the first Arab company to receive investments from the “500 Startups” program in Silicon Valley, California.


In eight years, the company has grown from one employee to about eighty converting mobile games into Arabic, as well as adapting content to suit Arab culture.


“Language has been an obstacle to the growth of mobile games” in the region, says Nour Khreis, founder and CEO of Mays Alward, a mobile game development company.


"The Arabic language connects the player emotionally," he added.


The company "Tomato", which has offices in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, has so far published more than 50 mobile games among iPhone and Android users, and achieved download rates of more than 100 million times after it was launched on the Apple Store and Google online stores.


According to Hammo, “70% of smartphone users in the Arab world have set their phones in Arabic, which means that they like to consume content in their mother tongue.”


“Unfortunately, when we write (games) games in English, when we search in app stores, we find millions of games. But when we search for it in Arabic, it does not exceed a few thousand.”


Khreis asserts that the Middle East and North Africa region is "the largest growth region in the world in the field of electronic games."


The company "Mordor Intelligence", a market analysis company, estimates that the global gaming market in 2020 amounted to 174 billion dollars, and is expected to reach 314 billion dollars in 2026.


The company "Tomato", which has partnerships with game companies in the United States, China and France South Korea, Bulgaria and Croatia, by converting the games into Arabic by converting the voices of the characters, their names, the accompanying music, the clothes, the accompanying atmosphere, and the car numbers all into Arabic.


"We are not only working on translation, but also education by making the content suitable for Arab culture and more receptive to the Arab public," said Iyad Al-Bashir, chief operating officer of the company.


Among her works is the game "Hollywood Story", which in its Arabic version has turned into the "Queen of Fashion", while its main characters, "Nicole" and "Amber", who want to enter the world of fame and stardom, have turned to "Al-Anoud" and "Safa", and instead of traveling to New York City. And Los Angeles, you travel to Dubai, Beirut and Cairo, and this game has been downloaded more than 15 million times in Arabic.


As for the game "Clash of the Empire", which the company launched this year in its Arabic version, it turned into a "challenge of kings", and the main character in it, Richard I, King of England, historically known as "Richard the Lionheart", became the Islamic leader Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi to suit the Arab audience.


Among the most prominent games developed by the company for the Gulf audience is the game "Chic the Metal", which became its name "Hazz Al-Hadid", specifically for lovers of drifting and drifting, and it has been downloaded more than five million times.


Instead of using Ferrari and Lamborghini cars, it used cars widely used in the Gulf region, such as "Kia" and "Toyota", with Gulf music and Arabic license plates.


But the most famous and downloaded game, especially for adults, remains the French card tug-of-war game, which became known as “VIP Plot.” It has been downloaded more than 20 million times and is played by about 250 thousand Saudis per day.


"Tomato made games easier and we understand things that we didn't understand before because they were in English," says Khader Hamid, a 28-year-old civil engineer who plays the company's games.


 Mona Rummaneh, 30, who works in the field of electronic marketing, says that the Arab games left her "confident that all the content is appropriate for our culture and morals."


Mona recalled how she and other players expressed their solidarity with the Lebanese players after the explosion of Beirut Port in August 2020.


"Therefore, it is more than just a game," she added.


In a report issued in 2019 by the World Economic Forum, “Tomato” was chosen as one of the top 100 Arab companies “shaping the fourth industrial revolution.”


The company's revenue comes from advertisements accompanying games or in-app purchases such as buying stronger characters or faster cars.


Hammo confirms that the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced people to stay in their homes for long periods, was a blessing for the electronic games market, as the number of players on mobile phone increased by 150 percent.