Tamatem

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Tamatem
TypeMobile Game Publisher
IndustryMobile games
Founded2013; 8 years ago (2013)
FounderHussam Hammo
Headquarters
Amman
,
Jordan
Number of locations
1
Area served
Global
Key people
Hussam Hammo (CEO) Eyad AlBasheer (COO)
Number of employees
46 (2018)
Websitetamatem.co

Tamatem is a Jordanian mobile game developer and publisher, which localizes globally published mobile games and develops their own games for Arabic speakers.[1] It is the leading mobile games publisher in the MENA market.[2]

History[]

Tamatem ("tomatoes" in Arabic) was founded in Amman in 2013 by Hussam Hammo and registered in the British Virgin Islands,[3] who found that the app stores were lacking Arabic-based content. Previously, he had founded one of the first Arabic social networks and a gaming studio for Arabic social games. For Tamatem, they received investment from 500 Startups in Silicon Valley.[4][1][5]

Tamatem was part of batch 6 accelerator program in Mountain View, California between April 2013 and July 2013. It launched its first product Arabic Stars Quiz in July 2013 and saw 650,000 downloads in one month.[6][7] During its three-month growth hacking scheme at WeWork, Tamatem signed a publishing deal with mobile games Tapinator to localize their games for the MENA market. A round of investment in September 2013 brought them $450,000 from MENA Venture Investments and 500 Startups. The investment in the second round came from Kuwaiti fund Arzan VC.[8]

Their mobile game Awad the Delivery King, with the theme of food delivery in Amman, was issued in the summer of 2014. The game was produced in collaboration with the Kharabeesh animation studio. It was downloaded more than 1 million times by the end of the year, helping the company hit the six million download mark.[9] 18 months after launch, Tamatem had published 40 games with 10 million downloads and 1.4 million monthly active users.[10]

By 2015, Tamatem had 12 employees in Jordan and Silicon Valley, and a 35-game portfolio running both on Android and iOS mobile platforms. It became a flagship company in the Middle East gaming sector, topping 40,000 downloads a day and receiving investments worth $500,000 from both regional and US investors. Tamatem backers included Kai Huang, the co-creator of the Guitar Hero franchise.[9] In 2015, it graduated in London as part of the Dojo Distro program.[5] Its game release A Dumb Question became the #1 downloaded app in Saudi Arabia in just four days.[11]

By early 2016, Tamatem had 16 million total downloads of 35 games, of which 25 reached No 1. They had more than 2.1 million monthly active users and 350,000 daily active users.[1] In 2014-15, it had 200% growth over 12 months. In 2016, it was experiencing 40% month-on-month growth on downloads and revenue.[5] Tamatem had published 41 games by November 2016, with 35 million downloads in the Arab world.[12]

By end of 2017, Tamatem had 45 million downloads of 40 games, of which 30 reached No.1.

In 2018, Tamatem closed an investment of $2,500,000 lead by Wamda Capital, with participation from Discovery Nusantara Capital, Raed Ventures, Vision Venture Capital, and Seed Equity Venture Partners.[13]

They also published an Arabic-version of Lithuanian mobile game developers, Game Insight's Airport City.[14]

On 14 February 2020, Tamatem raised $3.5 million in a Series A round led by its existing investor Wamda Capital, along with Modern Electronics Company (part of AlFaisaliah Group) and North Base Media.[15]

Concept[]

Tamatem is based on the idea that less than 1 percent of online content in app stores is accessible to Arabic users. For that reason, the company partners with popular game apps in the U.S., Chinese and European market and converts them into Arabic equivalents that its audience can understand.[16] It also develops their own games for Arabic speakers.[1]

Select list of games[]

Game
Arabic Stars QuizIn[6]
Awad the Delivery King[9]
A Dumb Question[11]
Death Road[8]
Moron Test[8]
Shake the Metal[2]
Shake the Metal Rush[2]
Shake the Metal Online
VIP Baloot
VIP Jalsat
Bandar's Farm
Rage of the righteous
Fashion Queen
Clash of Empires

List of published games[]

Year Game Developer
2016 Downshift Transylgamia
2017 VIP Balot[17] Casualino
2017 Dynasty Blades EZ Fun
2017 VIP Tawla Casualino
2018 Airport City Game Insight
2018 Rage of the Righteous EZ Fun
2019 Fashion Queen Nanobit

Awards[]

Year Award Awarded By
2017 Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award Ernst & Young
2017 Best Jordanian Small & Medium Enterprise (SME)
2014 Best Game of the Year 2014 Apple

In December 2017, Tamatem was awarded Ernst & Young's Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

In October 2017, Tamatem was awarded JOD 25,000 by Etihad Bank for winning best Jordanian Small & Medium Enterprise (SME).

Awad the Delivery King was awarded "Best Game of the Year 2014" in the Saudi, Egyptian and Emirati markets by Apple.[11]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d Monty Munford (29 January 2016). "Forget Oil, The new Middle East Gushers Are Mobile Games". Forbes. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  2. ^ a b c "Shake the Metal Sequel to be Launched by Tamatem". Venture. 20 April 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  3. ^ https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.tamatem_inc.d568190f5572cef64e5a00d39f78e920.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ^ Glen Dalakian (2 July 2013). "Wizards founder builds new mobile gaming company at 500 Startups in Silicon Valley". Wamda. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  5. ^ a b c Monty Munford (19 April 2016). "Our First World Technology Problems Are Nothing Compared to Those in the Middle East". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  6. ^ a b "Founders of Wizard Launches Mobile Gaming Startup Tamatem Backed by Startup500". Arab Crunch. 3 July 2013. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  7. ^ Lawler, Ryan (14 May 2013). "500 Startups Accelerator Unleashes Its Sixth Class, A Melting Pot Of Mostly International, Totally Ghetto Fabulous Startups". TechCrunch. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  8. ^ a b c "Achievement unlocked: Tamatem announces new games, new investment and 10 million downloads". Wamda. 2 June 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  9. ^ a b c Elisa Oddone (12 January 2015). "Tamatem Hits Six Million Downloads". Venture. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  10. ^ Monty Munford (14 November 2015). "Forget secretive headquarters, co-working spaces will foster the next Google". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  11. ^ a b c Mustafa Al Hayali (23 January 2015). "This Mobile Games Company is Changing the Arabic Gaming World". Baraka Bits. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  12. ^ Suzanna Goussous (12 November 2016). "Jordan poised to become hub for Arab game producers". The Jordan Times. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  13. ^ "500 Startups-backed Tamatem raises $2.5M to localise games for Arabic-speaking market". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-07-19.
  14. ^ "Tamatem has built a thriving mobile business by bringing games to the Arab world". VentureBeat. 2018-04-21. Retrieved 2018-07-19.
  15. ^ "Tamatem, the games publisher for the MENA market, raises $3.5M to reach other 'underserved' gamers". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  16. ^ Ryan Lawler (24 July 2013). "Live From The 500 Startups Accelerator's Sixth Demo Day". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  17. ^ samuel-wendel (2017-10-24). "Jordanian Entrepreneur Built Tamatem Into A Regional Key Player In The Gaming Industry - Forbes Middle East". Forbes Middle East. Retrieved 2018-01-30.

External links[]

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