Overview of MENA markets

so the good news that you both one and you will get one for free so whatever you heard about Latin America from Marcelo just leave remove Latin America and put the Middle East it applies so Thank You Marcelo for the good presentation so I'll try with you to get more information about the MENA region through to be honest with you in the morning in the opening session I was a bit you know coming from the region and seeing that you know talking about the potential markets and not mentioning the Middle East market is always a a pain for me and I wonder always is it they a information data gathering or are we not providing as game developers enough information about the MENA region this is what I'm I'm here today basically if you go yes this is the last

slide so it thanks it's too early no you know you need to go to the first slide yes so just I have been in building games since like 16 years now so I started with a feature phones small the small Java Jake to me phones and I worked 16 years in in in base in Jordan a man and and work closely with the community within Jordan and Middle East which today I will share few information and a few basically insights about it in terms of F game development my team is is we we are based in in Amman Jordan we have a small office since 2000 a 17 living it in a spa in the UK this expansion came is not to open a new

dimension market rather than fixing some issues that we had in in a kind of talent that we needed in within our operation so the good thing that you know I in this slide I'm mentioning that we have 60% of our team as a female developers and this is something by design and something that we worked very hard ly in in the region and especially in Jordan to build this capacity of female developers and they are not marketís business development they really work in code and that's very important and and it had a very strong impact on our numbers through the pass these measurable numbers so we are seeing the impact of having a female developer in within our operation so we build our own IPS and basically we work on casual board games have build dominoes is one of our top selling games soon we'll be relaunching or leopa file we collaborate we we believe in a RvR we

collaborated with one of the Netflix top IPs called oddbod so we build VR games both on the mobile VR and oculus go and we have an augmented reality you know interest in and within our our development cycle so that type of game is that we we built and today I want to go with you to the MENA region so so some people see the MENA region yes war in Yemen war in in Syria we just ended closely the war in Iraq and a continuous conflict between Israel and Palestinian that hopefully one day it will end some people see us rich yes I think four of the eight top producer of oil is in the MENA region yes 30 percent of the production come from the MENA region I

think the biggest does that in in Asia or the fifth biggest in the world is in our region which is we call it the ruble Holly it's the one of the biggest so yeah we have less water than anyone else and good food Hamas and all the other vegetarian food and and funny things that Hamas is a good food because it contains the chickpeas and it contains tehina and both of them that they found in as a nutrition for you know for heart diseases there be it's and a lot of good things that comes from how so yes we do have and all true so yes we do all have such combination in the Middle East but others Amina in a different way and the news you see it as as numbers and potential and Amazon recently so it has great opportunity and

they started their AWS in Bahrain and that's that's another way to see the MENA region how we see it and I would sure how we see it as as as people as game developers from the MENA region we see it as a is a passion and ambition and this is this is the one of this will be next year the Pocket Gamer Middle East so we we've been running a show for the past years also we had the help from pocket gamers team and 20 you know the Middle East youth is the highest worldwide so thirty percent I think today we is below twenty five years old so it's one of the highest growing youth and and those are motivated and why they are motivated yes because they we have a war yes because we have a restriction in moving around yes because the the lack of water gave them ambition or gave the

motivation to work in technology and that's the potential that the potential you want to see in in your games in the region that the potential that we need you to come and explore in in the MENA region because of this potential because of this generation that is today spending yes they are rich in the GCC country so yes you can't benefit from their spending and their money and you can benefit from the use that is all over Egypt Algeria and the mean that we see it is the MENA that I will explain and it's not a very complex as a lot of people try to explain it in terms of market so just to give a note when we talk about Mina's game developer we are not talking about Iran Israel or Turkey could they they exist in the MENA region but those are not the a segment that we we can target together today so when we talk into the MENA

region there is a three main hubs GCC countries Levant and North Africa and when you look to the GCC country poorly or bye-bye luck that you have to Iraq and Yemen is yes they are in the GCC and no they are not in the GCC as as an official GC but they have the same characteristics as the GCC countries then we have Jordan Lebanon and Syria and Palestine those irrelevant and then a very strong part of the Middle East region in terms of population and and and future and this is a discussion that I had in the morning when you know when you compare yes India is big the potential is big but if you look into Algeria Egypt and Morocco also they are big in terms of numbers and if in terms of growth and and this is where we we don't see them and and a lot a lot of you know I am subscribed to most of the

stats or whatever data providers on on her mobile ecosystem and hardly they talk about Algeria Morocco or and because some time they they mix them with Africa they are in Africa they are in North Africa and Arabic side and they have a lot of shared characteristics with us as as as Arab speaking country because they are an Arab speaking country not because they have a French accent in there speaking that means they are no longer from that part of the target so if we look it to Mena as it is like this yes it looks like we have several countries looks like we have seven background culture but they all speak the same language and what we call it we call it the Arabic newspaper language so yes you can target them in one language easily they have all of the

same culture and honestly the region culture has been if you look into the foundation of the culture is basically especially in the region is basically came from religion with a Christianity or Islam and or even Judaism in certain basically North Africa so both all of us have the same you know the same base so to target them is very easy it's not as complex as you know I I attended a lot of sessions about the Middle East putting in the complexity of the rich complexity of investment etc it's not true the region is as much a big question that I'm always asked about iOS or Android 5050 I can't tell I can't tell 70/30 I can tell hundred zero what is going under the android iOS is the

spending who's spending so if you if you look into Android and if we go to Egypt you will see Android low-end devices brands that probably I I was talking with a friend of mine on lunch today and I mentioned how are we or opal and she never heard about opal ah who are we because those are the brand the low-end brand that is $100 $80 but those are not your target as a game developer sometimes yes they can play games but hardly they can spend anything even converging through ads they don't convert so we target them sometimes what I call them is is the fillers of your games especially when you are building a multiplayer games so you need people to play you need people to challenge other players who are you you you know your big spenders and those who will find them in in the low-end devices that we have in the region so funny thing in iOS Android conversion in in the Middle East the moment you have money you convert to

iOS so if you are in low income person you have the low cheapest Android or then you have a little bit money you bring a Samsung good you know mid-range Samsung who are we etcetera but the moment you start gaining more you convert directly to iOS and that's the prestigious kind of you know look for the iOS device in our region so we have fairly 50/50 on on them and and the the presence as devices as as stores are very strong so but so so I I'm just you know we called the the Arabic language there's a letter called God in Arabic which is we call it lower to Bob this is the Arabic language and and you will be surprised that why it's important to have your products Arabic seven out of ten actually browse the internet through

Arabic yes we speak English yes sometimes in certain countries English is there so I studied in the Middle East in Jordan and my four years of universe it was in English we don't have Arabic in our universities so yes we study in English we have schools give a strong English etcetera but Arabic is our you know our language so we use it more often into browsing internet or look into products app store no description I put this a very important and I hope you know how I always keep on saying this hopefully one day one of the Apple people will wake up and and and do an action on that we don't have Arabic description for an Apple store so if we take the product now and we want to put it on the App Store on the Google Play will have an option saying you know you put your Arabic description but when you go to the App Store for Apple or iOS products you don't have a rebek

description so if seven out of ten is is browsing in Arabic how can you target your middle east audience with know Arabic description so you find the solution you mix your Arabic with your English it has two side effect the first will you put the Arabic first or the English first if you put the Arabic first then a English user will go to the app store see you like see it in Arabic as a third description he will skip and it happened a lot so what you can do is basically create and that negotiated and wouldn't happen create a dedicated version for the iOS in Arabic and that's the only trick that you can and we did this with with a partner we published with them called

zip dewlap with their cut the rope and cut rope magic and king of these so we did this and the impact was directly in front of us as not as numbers because the Arabic users wants to browse through Arabic so why Apple is not doing this this is a big question we will try to find it one day so my tip here is is why the app you know work on the app store description unity there are a lot of plugins that you can see on the last is sort of unity unity the good thing that they support Arabic and that's a very common platform and there is a certain plugins that are a new unity that can convert Arabic users and you know seconds your game can be a few it's it's build on unity it can be in seconds we are advised right-to-left because it's important right to left and then you go to your marketing and this is a read screenshot for I I hope there's no they are so AWA

it's very very famous now app in the region and this is how they advertise and this is not Arabic this is you know this is like when you see a western movie having some some guy a terrorist saying you know we will kill you but Arabic language is written drunk so that's the oh so that's not terrible it is if I read it in in a reverse way so Arabic is at that so so in most of our designers use either you know use Adobe so you have Photoshop Illustrator etcetera they don't support today in the past they used to have a plug-in that supports Arabic now they don't support Arabic but there are third parties plugins an online solution that you can reverse this and have it a proper Arabic because imagine you know targeting a user he will never understand it in order we understand because technically we go and we translate this into a technical right-to-left or reverse but a normal

user so you will miss this is a screenshot from the Facebook ads and other things another thing it's the right to left and the links so one of so again still technology in progress SEO s in Arabic still not that strong so you can build SEO s but there's still Google algorithms and whatever you know whether on a SEO or a SEO s kind of store optimization it's not there and the same thing with the links so if you basically this is a this is an article that was written and and whoever wrote an article about us he put you know the article name because it's in Arabic in Arabic but when he created the URL and we you want to post the URL on any social media there it will be transferred to a code and this will make no sense for the normal user so we have

a lot of ads that we see where you go go and download or read this news or read about this product and the whole description is like a virus so that's another thing that worth mentioning in addition the length of text so Arabic takes more you know characters than English so you tweet less so basically that's an important information when you want to advertise so you need to have your proper text Arabic text when you advertise to and a lot big mistakes from a lot of our friends they try to adapt Arabic for each region or for each section I mentioned so you have a GCC Arabic and North African Arabic then Egyptian you know you don't need to do it do the basic Arabic which is what I call a newspaper are

it's the most easiest way and you can approach everyone in the region and that's the you know again it's it's it's cheap and it's not expensive and important gamers are our gamers today last last Pocket Gamer and I think in Helsinki I was asked about you know how you know the democra demographics or how the shape of the look of gamers gamers are gamers today I don't believe that there is a gamer in the u.s. different than the gamer you know and all the big games showed us that we play the same way it's not about but and and we see the same show of share almost everywhere today between basically female and male and the percent this year is say there is a wrong in the numbers but there are interests in the region and today this month is the month of Ramadan Ramadan is equal Christmas in in the eastern world

so Ramadan is the fasting month and that's the month where you make money out of your games because people fast they are tired and they need something to you know either TV or they want to be entertained through games so we don't see game developers from outside of the region doing anything a drama bond where it is the biggest movement where you can generate money especially starting the week the second week so the first week people will be dying thinking about food drinking etcetera then they the body system adapted to Ramadan hot now they want to be entertained and and you don't see any game that is running in in in the Middle East from outside during Ramadan one of the most important cultural ization aspects I see is the life operation and support and I I think in my in my studio the most expensive part of the operation today is

supporting people and and I again we had a good lunch with a friend of my today and I was talking about very simple custom in the Middle East coffee so we were talking about Starbucks and the coffee and we have a we have a the coffee is very important in the Middle East and we have signals out of coffee so when you come to my house and I serve you a full cup of coffee that means I want you to go back home early the less coffee you have in your cup that means the more welcome you are because I want to keep on giving you coffee if I serve you cold coffee that means you know whatever you are asking me I would refuse it so so think about this in the life operation it's very there are a few small things in life operation the way you talk so it happens GCC countries which is the biggest spender they don't like the life operations support too

sometimes you come from Egypt or from Morocco or from Tunisia or a life operation they don't like like a female to talk with them to give them direction so this particular part is the most expensive part and you need to basically know exactly how to speak with your users in the Middle East how to compensate them so it's not about sometimes refund or it's not about because I I know I know a lot of studios similar like us who works on on different games us for example I have my dominoes I have my user send me when they are married they send me gifts to the office when they have a happy occasion because this is the relation that they build with the life operation and they they they love it they love this close cultural kind of relation so life operation is very important social media the right one used this right

social media basically influencer like any anywhere else but again match it with the social media in the right way so a snapchat is very big in through the Arabia it's not big in Jordan to target your Facebook is very big in Jordan it's not in in Kuwait its Twitter so know exactly where your traffic is again alternatives are there App Store Google Play yes they exist but still we make money flow operators telco operators through basically alternative stores and we we heard about unity coming soon with an alternative store we have Hawaii which is Ana Chinese handset manufacturers very strong in the region they generate as much as Google Play sometimes for your products so alternative store are important and still unfortunately someone who came from this background operators they have a say on your reach and in your

distribution so you have to build relation with the operators to wrap up very fast this is where I see the opportunities Iraq is coming soon Iraq is a big market just getting out from war they just released credit cards recently so she started to see people paying on line which is very important it's a it's a place where they are big spender eSport is I think whoever works on eSport need to think about the region quickly because it's picking up Sood Arabia basically changed the rules in the past six-month cinemas of their entertainment a lot of changes in the one of the biggest market in the region its opening more and more into entertainment eSport is a big opportunity of course ad networks does not exist in our region as strong as we need and we can see a lot of brands shifting to spend their money basically on ads just to end i1 just to advertise

for our next show Pocket Gamer in in in Jordan this is Pocket Gamer hopefully to see you in Jordan this year in November not as just a Jordan you would see this is from the previous year we built before bringing more of our friends into organizing this year event and hopefully the next year's events [Music] I'm just having my first experience in Jordan I've never been here before I think the thing that impressed me the most was the number of women that were in the audience today and something we're working hard on in the u.s. getting more women involved in the business and here it seems like you're already ahead of us on that it's unbelievable to see the energy of the students too young people coming with their parents

to seeing the amount of an incredible of tenants of women and actually again the games are becoming going onto a world stage [Music] the Jordan gaming that really gives students an outlet to display their own creativity and their passion and drive to make games it really gives a younger person who has that enthusiasm the opportunity to like let that out it's been really great [Music] [Applause] so this is my second year here and I can say it's been quite a few changes for us from last year I think already we were quite impressed last year and a lot of the things we really like to still there is very high percentage of female attendees which is amazing the density event [Applause]

I got the you know the idea about the Jordan is needed like more people who've done the international stuff and then encouraged them to you know they should feel that we can do it too [Music] I started my career here in Jordan maybe fifteen years ago I started thinking getting a bunch of people back then we were just and now I look at it and there's all these like nice structures businesses labs it has really evolved into a hub I'm looking at a bright future for this region for a lot of interesting companies individuals to come out of the fascinating [Music] so hopefully to see you there your huh Moses is on me when you come to Jordan so thank you very much I'll be around today and tomorrow so

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