bonuz submits GamifyDubai.com for Dubai-it Award 2026, opens 20 brand pilot places

Dubai: Bonuz Technology DMCC, the Dubai company behind the bonuz apps, has officially submitted GamifyDubai.com to the Dubai-it Award 2026. GamifyDubai.com is a plan to make Dubai the first city people can play: real streets, quests at real places, and rewards that belong to the person who earns them. The application is in and under review, and bonuz shares the plan now because the technology behind it is already live.

With the submission, bonuz opens its first brand pilot programme. Brands, restaurants, venues and event organisers can sign up at app.bonuz.market and apply to run gamified campaigns. bonuz will approve no more than 20 brands in the first month. These brands become the pilots of GamifyDubai.com.

How it works

The idea follows one simple loop: find a quest, go there, complete it, prove it, get rewarded.

Quests are more than check-ins. Visitors take actions that have real value for a brand: they try something new, share the story of their meal or visit, bring a friend, or come back. The brand decides the reward, for example a voucher redeemed on the next visit. Pilot brands can run digital punch cards and loyalty cards, quests during events, and quests during restaurant and venue visits.

It is a win-win ecosystem. Players discover more of Dubai and keep what they earn. Brands get more people through the door and build a real relationship with them. The biggest goal of any brand is a

happy customer who comes back. bonuz is built for exactly that: higher loyalty and repeat customers. Over time the same system serves hundreds of uses, from cafés and retail to cultural sites and gym memberships.

Live today

GamifyDubai.com runs on technology built on 2.1 million lines of code. bonuz LIFE mode has been in the public bonuz app since August 2026. Users raise their phone and nearby venues appear in place, with their real name and distance. bonuz has more than 10,000 registered users, and works on iOS, Android and the web with no download.

The entire ecosystem is self-custodial: what users collect is held by the users themselves, never by bonuz. With their bonuz ID, users connect their social media accounts into one portable identity they own.

Over the long term, bonuz plans large-scale campaigns with tourism departments in the UAE and abroad, and with major festivals, events and concerts, industries that need new ways to engage visitors.

"Our team wrote GamifyDubai.com down for the first time in May 2023. The idea is simple. The city is the game," said Matthias Mende, creator and CEO of bonuz and co-founder of Dubai Blockchain Center. "I have lived in Dubai since 2007, and I grew up as a gamer, from Diablo to World of Warcraft, from GTA 1 to GTA 5. In 2010 and 2011 I was already experimenting with augmented reality, but it was too early. Today the infrastructure exists, and we merged it into one experience: the real-world Grand Theft Auto, an open city you play by walking through it. Dubai allowed us to think big, so we did what this city does. We Dubai-it."

"Now we want the brands of this city to play with us," Mende added. "Every brand wants customers who are happy and come back. We give them a way to earn that, and the customer wins too. Our target is the same as the Award's: to boost the economy and help place Dubai at the top of the world's innovation map."

GamifyDubai.com is one of four applications bonuz submitted to the Dubai-it Award 2026.