“Seventy percent of smartphone users in the Arab world have set their phones in Arabic, which means they like to use content in their mother language,” said Hammo. “The Arabic language connects (the player) emotionally.” With offices now in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Tamatem has published more than 50 mobile games, which have been downloaded more than 100 million times on Apple and Google Play stores. “Language was a barrier to mobile games growth” in the region, said Nour Khrais, founder and chief executive of games developer Maysalward. Eight years on the company has grown to about 80 staff who convert mobile phone games into Arabic, also adapting content to fit Arab culture. Hamo founded Tamatem-which means tomato-in 2013 and it was the first Arab company to win investment from the “500 Startups” program based in Silicon Valley, California. “There is a very big gap in this market that we are trying to fill,” added the 38-year-old entrepreneur, sitting in his elegant Amman offices. “Less than one percent of internet content is in Arabic, even though there are 400 million Arab users,” said the company’s founder and CEO Hussam Hammo. Its logo is a tomato, not an apple, but in just eight years Jordanian company Tamatem has already bitten a chunk out of the lucrative market for Arabic mobile games. Hussam Hammo, founder and CEO of Tamatem, speaks during an interview at his office in the capital Amman.-AFP photos
