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Mobile game development in Pakistan: An interview with Umair Javed, CEO of TkXel
I’m pretty bullish on this move towards product development in the Pakistani software industry. We’ve recently covered a number of up and coming startups that are working on exciting technology, going direct to the end customer and trying to move beyond the sometimes-boring “software thaykaydaari”…
Just recently, we had Hassan Baig from Islamabad based Facebook app developer, White Rabbit, tell us how he’s building teams and motivating key contributors. We also looked at Lahore based Pepper.pk’s work in mobile app development and their recent appearance in the Handango Top 10 Blackberry Apps list. And of course, we’ve talked about TkXel too, but today we’re going to get to know this company a lot better.
I had the opportunity to chat with their CEO, Umair Javed, about his thoughts on mobile app development, TkXel’s achievements and plans for the future. Interesting stuff. Here goes…
Tell us a little about TkXel. When was the company founded and what were the founder’s backgrounds?
TkXel is a software development company that is working in Mobile and Web 2.0 domains. TkXel provides software development services to companies across the globe. It also develops its own products and sells these through various channels.
TkXel was founded in 2008 in a small lab of LUMS. I was an adjunct faculty member at the CS department and started working with an initial engineering team comprised of a few highly enthusiastic and skilled graduating students. These remarkable engineers took up some challenging work and helped the company get on its feet.
From this humble beginning, the team started to expand and soon it was clear that LUMS’ small lab would not be able to accommodate the entire team. So in September 2008, the team shifted to its office outside LUMS. TkXel is now a fast growing company and has more than 30 full time engineers, graphic designers and QA resources on its team. While most of TkXel’s engineering team comes from the leading universities like LUMS and FAST-NU, TkXel also picks up raw talent from other places and polish them to be at par with others.
Is the company privately funded or Venture backed? Are you profitable?
The initial funding for the company was privately sourced. TkXel achieved positive cash flow in its first quarter and is currently a profitable entity.
Why did you choose mobile application development? There seem to be a large number of companies in Pakistan these days that are focused on mobile apps.
We recently covered another Lahore based startup, Pepper.pk.
Are you following a trend or do you bring something unique to this space?
We chose mobile application development for two reasons; technology convergence to mobile platforms, and opportunities available for entrepreneurs.
About two years back the introduction of the iPhone turned the smartphone market on its head and at that moment we thought it was an ideal time to get into the mobile app development market. It gave us direct reach to end users across the globe. At the same time, it helped us offer our services in a spectrum which was not yet saturated like traditional web development.
Over the last year and half we earned decently from our products and services, and now that we have a better understanding of development and marketing in this area we are working on various concepts that have the potential of going big.
From the perspective of a Pakistani company, we offer services and products that are not offered by many Pakistani companies. These services include end to end game development, which is still a very rare skill in the local landscape.
Our readers would be interested to learn more about your distribution strategy. How do you take your apps to market and what approaches have worked for you? Which ones haven’t?
We are primarily distributing our apps through the appstores and marketplaces of handset manufacturers. These appstores have given us direct access to international customers. To enhance our sales we rely on social media channels. Right now we are in the process of establishing a dedicated social media team that can help us in creating visibility about our products and services.
Mobile apps on the consumer side are all about volume. Tell us a little about your pricing strategy to optimize volume – how do you think consumer focued mobile apps should be priced? And also, how do you drive volume? Do you run SEO/SEM activities, or employ other approaches?
There are two distinct categories when it comes to pricing. We feel that games and entertainment apps are about volume as the target market segment is very large. So, low pricing along with decent quality brings a lot of customers to your apps. The key in this category is how successful are you in terms of creating a marketing buzz about your app. Your marketing gives you an initial surge and if the app is of decent quality it will then lift itself up.
The second category includes applications developed for niche areas. Here the market size is small but they are willing to pay high if your app has a utility for them, so price could be high.
We have worked with the above mentioned two strategies and are getting reasonable rewards. We have not yet applied SEO or SEM techniques to our products but we think that right now Social Medial Marketing brought much more benefits than SEO or SEM. The reason is simple; customers are searching your apps on the appstores and not on Google or other search engines. The social media strategies work because customers come to dedicated forums or places where they can find peer reviews and recommendations for apps and games.
Mobile game development in Pakistan: An interview with Umair Javed, CEO of TkXel | TechLahore
I’m pretty bullish on this move towards product development in the Pakistani software industry. We’ve recently covered a number of up and coming startups that are working on exciting technology, going direct to the end customer and trying to move beyond the sometimes-boring “software thaykaydaari”…
Just recently, we had Hassan Baig from Islamabad based Facebook app developer, White Rabbit, tell us how he’s building teams and motivating key contributors. We also looked at Lahore based Pepper.pk’s work in mobile app development and their recent appearance in the Handango Top 10 Blackberry Apps list. And of course, we’ve talked about TkXel too, but today we’re going to get to know this company a lot better.
I had the opportunity to chat with their CEO, Umair Javed, about his thoughts on mobile app development, TkXel’s achievements and plans for the future. Interesting stuff. Here goes…
Tell us a little about TkXel. When was the company founded and what were the founder’s backgrounds?
TkXel is a software development company that is working in Mobile and Web 2.0 domains. TkXel provides software development services to companies across the globe. It also develops its own products and sells these through various channels.
TkXel was founded in 2008 in a small lab of LUMS. I was an adjunct faculty member at the CS department and started working with an initial engineering team comprised of a few highly enthusiastic and skilled graduating students. These remarkable engineers took up some challenging work and helped the company get on its feet.
From this humble beginning, the team started to expand and soon it was clear that LUMS’ small lab would not be able to accommodate the entire team. So in September 2008, the team shifted to its office outside LUMS. TkXel is now a fast growing company and has more than 30 full time engineers, graphic designers and QA resources on its team. While most of TkXel’s engineering team comes from the leading universities like LUMS and FAST-NU, TkXel also picks up raw talent from other places and polish them to be at par with others.
Is the company privately funded or Venture backed? Are you profitable?
The initial funding for the company was privately sourced. TkXel achieved positive cash flow in its first quarter and is currently a profitable entity.
Why did you choose mobile application development? There seem to be a large number of companies in Pakistan these days that are focused on mobile apps.
We recently covered another Lahore based startup, Pepper.pk.
Are you following a trend or do you bring something unique to this space?
We chose mobile application development for two reasons; technology convergence to mobile platforms, and opportunities available for entrepreneurs.
About two years back the introduction of the iPhone turned the smartphone market on its head and at that moment we thought it was an ideal time to get into the mobile app development market. It gave us direct reach to end users across the globe. At the same time, it helped us offer our services in a spectrum which was not yet saturated like traditional web development.
Over the last year and half we earned decently from our products and services, and now that we have a better understanding of development and marketing in this area we are working on various concepts that have the potential of going big.
From the perspective of a Pakistani company, we offer services and products that are not offered by many Pakistani companies. These services include end to end game development, which is still a very rare skill in the local landscape.
Our readers would be interested to learn more about your distribution strategy. How do you take your apps to market and what approaches have worked for you? Which ones haven’t?
We are primarily distributing our apps through the appstores and marketplaces of handset manufacturers. These appstores have given us direct access to international customers. To enhance our sales we rely on social media channels. Right now we are in the process of establishing a dedicated social media team that can help us in creating visibility about our products and services.
Mobile apps on the consumer side are all about volume. Tell us a little about your pricing strategy to optimize volume – how do you think consumer focued mobile apps should be priced? And also, how do you drive volume? Do you run SEO/SEM activities, or employ other approaches?
There are two distinct categories when it comes to pricing. We feel that games and entertainment apps are about volume as the target market segment is very large. So, low pricing along with decent quality brings a lot of customers to your apps. The key in this category is how successful are you in terms of creating a marketing buzz about your app. Your marketing gives you an initial surge and if the app is of decent quality it will then lift itself up.
The second category includes applications developed for niche areas. Here the market size is small but they are willing to pay high if your app has a utility for them, so price could be high.
We have worked with the above mentioned two strategies and are getting reasonable rewards. We have not yet applied SEO or SEM techniques to our products but we think that right now Social Medial Marketing brought much more benefits than SEO or SEM. The reason is simple; customers are searching your apps on the appstores and not on Google or other search engines. The social media strategies work because customers come to dedicated forums or places where they can find peer reviews and recommendations for apps and games.
Mobile game development in Pakistan: An interview with Umair Javed, CEO of TkXel | TechLahore
