What do you do when you learn that 20 million Arabic speaking children aged three to eight have access to tablets and/or smartphones? You try to make their use of gadgets worthwhile. And that is particularly what Egyptian mothers Rana Said and Sara Abu Nar did when they put their entrepreneurship hats on to bring EduKitten to life.
Although edutainment apps are found in abundance on both App Store and Play Store, the majority are available in English or French, with very few high quality apps in Arabic.
Being both concerned parents and software developers, EduKitten co-founders realized the grave need to bring proper Arabic to children in a fun and appealing context. “It is much harder to grab the attention of children than you may think,” says Rana Said, EduKitten CEO. “They are a really challenging audience.”
Since the launching of EduKitten in November 2012, the team has introduced seven interactive books and two games, with over 400,000 app downloads to date. Although the majority of apps are available for iOS only, the team aims at making them available for Android where the market is bigger.
Even though EduKitten was initially intended for Arab expats, Saudi Arabia constitutes their biggest market with 30% of downloads, followed by the United States and United Arab Emirates. But that brought about a tough challenge.
“In the European and US markets, they say that ‘If an app is for free, it’s not worth it’,” says Said. “We’re not exactly there yet.” Although the Arab users appreciate the quality and content of the apps, Said and her team face the obstacle of dealing with a market that is not yet ripe enough to invest money in apps. Currently, all of their apps are available for free, with an ad removal option available for $1.99.
“Our biggest challenge is to find a business model that is sustainable,” shared Said. Yet despite the challenges, Said and her team remain devoted to prioritizing the enhancement of app quality over digital marketing, which they hope to invest in soon. “We want to make sure that our products are top-notch quality before anything else, and I believe we have succeeded in doing so.”
Aiming at providing children with applications that educate as well as entertain, EduKitten is keen on inviting education professionals from different educational backgrounds, Montessori or traditional, to collaborate with the team and equip them with concrete knowledge of what their young audience needs. They also consider proper Arabic to be cornerstone in their apps, whereas other publishers offer slang Arabic in their games.
With enough at hand to work on and improve, EduKitten aren’t too concerned about competition because “the market fits us all.” Serving both the Arabic speaking countries of the MENA region, and the Arab expats abroad, only 6 publishers currently provide good quality applications for the market. “The kind of products that we provide is not something the audience has to pick between. It’s like yoghurt and rice, you never have to pick between them. You can have them both.”
