Orange Middle East & Africa has partnered with Tencent Cloud to improve its super-app Max it for businesses and populations in the region to enrich the Max its ecosystem, enhance the customer and partner experience, and strengthen its position in the African market.
They plan to adopt Tencent Cloud’s mobility framework and Tencent Cloud Mini Program Platform (TCMPP) solution to establish an open platform for Max it. This platform will integrate a wide range of mini apps within its super-app. Leveraging its expertise in supporting Tencent’s Weixin/WeChat ecosystem, which boasts over 1.1 billion monthly active Mini Program users, Tencent Cloud will empower OMEA in the field of mini apps.
By gradually integrating mini-app technology from the second half of 2024, thanks to its Digital Factory, OMEA aims to grant access to its platform to a hundred partners, both global and local, and double the adoption of its super-app by 2025. The partnership aligns with OMEA’s vision (“the world at your fingertip”) to create a unique digital ecosystem in Africa.
Jérôme Hénique, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa, emphasized the significant milestone this partnership represents in the development of Max it, saying, “This partnership with Tencent Cloud is a key step in our vision to offer innovative and high-value services to our users. Enriching Max it with innovative mini apps is essential to strengthen the value proposition of Max it, increase the penetration of our super-app among Orange and non-Orange customers, and amplify our social impact.”
Moreover, OMEA is committed to supporting African entrepreneurship through this alliance. It plans to offer local startups, merchants, content creators, as well as major brands and companies, the opportunity to develop mini applications tailored to the needs of each country. This approach will not only enhance African innovation but also stimulate the local economy by creating new employment opportunities and driving economic growth.
Bruno Zerbib, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Orange, highlighted the technological interest of this partnership, stating, “The MEA Region is a vibrant place for innovation, and we are committed to giving the ecosystem the means to develop new services through the best technologies. We chose Tencent Cloud for its leadership and scalable technology that allows the creation of mini-apps specific to our markets but also provides access to an existing platform of rich and varied mini-apps. With this partnership, we can offer our customers an unmatched diversity of services from different business verticals in one single app.”
Fred Sun, General Manager of Europe at Tencent Cloud, expressed excitement about collaborating with Orange to enrich Max it with their TCMPP solution. He sees this collaboration as an opportunity to energize innovation and digital inclusion in Africa, facilitating the development of use cases and services tailored to local needs while promoting African entrepreneurship. With Tencent Cloud’s experience in supporting Weixin/WeChat, one of the world’s original super-apps, they aim to be the ideal partner for Orange. They look forward to working with African enterprises and supporting its ecosystem through Tencent Cloud’s products and solutions in the near future.