Eddy and the rest of the SWAT team (from L): Chenwei, Li Jing and Galal (not in photo: Xianli, who was on leave at the time this picture was taken)
At Mozat, we deeply believe that the only way to build a good product is to follow users and develop a clear and deep understanding of them. We also believe that cultivating a lasting relationship with them in this fast-changing digital world is crucial.
This philosophy has recently been proven true by Eddy in his undertaking to build the largest mobile social gaming community in Saudi Arabia, also known as Shabik 360.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is truly a unique Islamic country. As the world’s second largest oil exporter, all facets of Saudi Arabia – including personal, political, economic and legal lives of the people – are governed by Islam. The family is the basis of the social structure and Saudis take their responsibilities to their families seriously. They are mindful of their heritage and beliefs, so this market is challenging. Everything has to be right and all systems have to be topnotch.
“Listening to consumer voice is key,” according to Eddy. “We have to understand exactly what kind of issues our users are facing in order to resolve them, and what they need,” he adds. Eddy shuttles to and from Saudi Arabia to meet with local partners and operators, interact with Saudi users and test how Shabik 360 is performing. He thoroughly studied the market to know what their preferences are, and what they want in a mobile social gaming platform.
Upon his return to Singapore, Eddy concludes that Saudi users consider Shabik 360 as their platform to get to know new friends and play games with others. Along with the operations and product teams, Eddy and his team revised the product from simply being an “online profile” to more of a “social discovery” tool. He also pointed out that most users are on Nokia, so there are more issues concerning user-friendliness and performance that have to be dealt with. The team wasted no time identifying them and addressed the issues one by one. The result was an improved, more user-friendly Shabik 360:
The "Me" tab has been changed to "Discover" tab, where there are more exciting social elements to explore, such as Nearby Users, Shabik Stars (featured users) and Cool Photos (popular images uploaded by users).
Some of the noteworthy improvements made on the latest Shabik 360 are faster initial loading time, improved user interface, organised “News” and “Games” tabs, faster page switches and active community engagement.
Through an active dialogue with users, we continuously implement efforts to improve not only Shabik 360,” concludes Eddy.
Listening, indeed, does wonders. It is rewarding that’s why we at Mozat always follow our users.
