MENA (the Middle East and North Africa) region is an exciting yet challenging market for app creators. Users in MENA spent $3.3 billion in the app stores in 2021 — this is $1.0 billion more than in 2020, equating to a 103% 2-year-growth.

Mobile game consumer spending has also doubled compared to 2018’s numbers.

Around 30% of people in the Arabic market don’t download Arabic apps either ‘don’t find what they want in Arabic apps’ or ‘don’t find them of good quality’. Moreover, they prefer using international apps.

And this is an excellent opportunity for you to enter this MENA market. Just think: you have an app that people want to use even without Arabic localization. What will be the success if you professionally localize it into their native language? It seems like you have a high chance of succeeding.

But is MENA a difficult region to release your app? Let’s look at the Arabic market’s peculiarities of software localization services. What are the main challenges for Arabic localization, and what things do you need to know to enter this market successfully?

1. Know Forbidden Elements

The Arabic market differs a lot from the European one. Countries in the MENA region have strong cultural traditions and religious beliefs.

For instance, online gambling is prohibited in Arab countries. Thus, if you want to enter the market with a gambling game, you need to be aware that it can be banned.

One of the essential things when localizing apps into Arabic is knowing that many topics are sensitive or forbidden. For example, homosexuality, excessive details of the intimate aspects of life, prohibited products in Islam, or religious symbols can’t be used in your games or apps. When localizing, we advise you to use neutral descriptions or even omit them in the descriptions.

Moreover, using supernatural beings like witches or vampires won’t be an option in your game. Your designer will need to come up with another graphic decision to enter the Arab market.

Also, creating a checklist with ‘right’ and ‘bad’ elements for your app is a nice idea. It will help the entire team: from developers to designers.

2. Use Native Speakers

Even though Google Translate is delivering better quality translations every year, we won’t recommend using it to localize your in-app texts into Arabic. AI might not get the context, and you’ll end up with confused users.

Also, keep in mind that if you have some kind of app or game that Isalm formally forbids, it might be tougher to hire native-speaker translators. Not all are willing to deal with gambling, betting, or violence.

3. Choose the Right Arabic Language Form 

Yes, there are several Arab dialects, and it’s most likely you won’t localize your app to all of them. There are three main options for the Arab language: Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, or dialectal Arabic.

Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the most common form of Arabic regarding written texts. Of course, you can use dialectal Arabic to sound bolder and more native. However, in such a case, your potential target audience is getting smaller as, for example, the Algerian dialect won’t be understood in Egypt.

Choose MSA to localize your texts in the app, game, or website. This is the most standardized version of the Arabic language, so you’d stay on the safe side, avoiding all dialects and slang words.

4. It’s Right-to-Left!

Another thing that differs is text direction. In Europe and the USA, people get used to the left-to-right text direction. In Arab countries, the situation is vice versa: texts are read from left to right.

Therefore, you must change all the buttons and message bubbles in your app or game. This might take a while, so get prepared for this in advance. Also, all your visuals must have right-to-left text on them. So, your team — from designers to QA engineers — needs to know how the text should be presented in the Arab market.

However, there is one exception: the numbers (for example, prices) remain left-to-right. Thus, the price of $4.99 turned into $99.4, causing some user misunderstandings. One of the game dev companies had an interesting case when they forgot about this tricky moment.

👎Wrong way to display prices in Arab (Image)

👍Right way to display prices in Arab (Image)

5. Respect Regional Holidays

One of the best ways to win the hearts of people in the Arabic market is to pay attention to their traditions and holidays.

Ramadan is the most prominent holiday in the Arab world. Also, it seems to be quite prosperous for many businesses. According to eMarketer, 44% of Indonesians choose online gaming as their preferred digital activity in the first week of Ramadan.

Moreover, Google Play statistics show that there is a 12% MoM growth in games revenue compared to the 31 days before Ramadan.

You can get more profit if you respect Arab traditions. In mobile games, congratulate Arab players and offer them themed special offers. Also, consider running a limited-time sale: the chances are that your users will get engaged more easily. This is the golden period when spending on games skyrockets because during these holidays, people have nothing to do (shortened working days, summer holidays), and they play games more.

Use symbols like the moon or stars in your app or game to highlight the Ramadan theme. Also, you can add some texts like ‘Have a Generous Ramadan!’ (رمضان كريم) —  your Arabic users will appreciate it.

Bottom Line

Arab localization is not so straightforward: it has some peculiarities and pitfalls. To ensure the best results, we recommend going for a software localization company with a vast experience translating apps and games for various markets.

High-quality localization can help to enter new markets, get stable user retention results, and boost your monetization metrics.