Channel Post MEA in conversation with Hani Suwwan, Business Development Manager – Middle East and North Africa at HyperX about how the company engages with channel and what drives HyperX growth in the region in the MEA region.
How would you describe the gaming landscape in the Middle East & Africa?
Gaming has always been a part of the MENA region, albeit it wasn’t exactly mainstream. Over the past few years, HyperX have seen more and more people get into gaming as it’s become more accessible. From PC’s to consoles to game-ready cell phones many people have access now to gaming, which coupled with the increase of games available meant a big increase in players. Not to mention the rising popularity of streaming and content creation in the region, which has been surging since the pandemic forced everyone indoors and onto consoles and PCs. In March 2020, Twitch streams in Arabic increased by 95.3% year-on-year and 36.9% compared to the previous month, while in April the yearly increase was 109.9%.
What is driving growth for your business in the region and which products contribute maximum to your regional business?
We are seeing a lot of growth with HyperX in MENA and there are two key factors behind this. First of all like mentioned before, there has been and continues to be massive growth in the gaming market in MENA which of course has implications on the growth of HyperX in the region but in order to cater to growing demand it’s important for us to keep supporting the market with new products. This is why within the last six months we have released our first 60% keyboard with the Alloy Origins 60, our first honeycomb mouse with the Pulsefire Haste and a wireless version of our most popular headset with the Cloud II Wireless. We anticipate all of these to be big drivers in the region as the popularity of these product categories continues to grow.
We are also aware of the desire to have localised content in MENA. Because of this we have created a dedicated HyperX social page for the region, added local language to our website and brought in custom regional product with our Arabic layout Alloy Origins Core keyboard, which is in high demand with its mechanical switches and local layout.
What is your distribution strategy and who are your distribution partners in the region?
The Middle East Market is distributed into 3 categories: Channel, Retail and Online, so our target is to have enough distributors to cater for those in GCC, Levant and North Africa.
In the age of hyper retail and e-commerce, how important is channel for you?
Covid has had a big influence on shopping habits around the world and this is no different in MENA as we see e-commerce becoming increasingly popular, which of course remains a very important avenue for us in channel. Retail does remains very popular and relevant to us though within Channel, particularly as shopping in malls is a major leisure activity in certain countries within MENA. We will continue to heavily invest in any opportunities to promote the HyperX brand in retail such as merchandising and brand stores.
Which are your key markets in the region and what are your plans to increase your footprint in the region?
We already have excellent breadth and loyal users to the brand across MENA, with strong presence in regions such as UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and we are working hard to maximize our presence across MENA.
How do you ensure channel partners work with you despite increasing competition?
HyperX works constantly to provide affordable high-quality products that cater for different needs and categories in order to gain more market share. Whilst from a marketing perspective we are focusing on maintaining a close and healthy relationship with our partners and are willing to work with them with the common goal of pushing both our brands.
