Overview: Today we’re going to talk about Orange - The 2nd largest telco in Africa, we’ll discuss its French founding, global expansion, success in Africa, non-telco businesses & end with our views on its future outlook. This episode was recorded on Nov 1, 2020.
Companies discussed: Orange S.A. (France Telecom), Orange Africa, Airtel Africa, Bharti Airtel Group, Celtel, Zain, MTN, Reliance Jio, Safaricom, Sonatel, Orascom, Mobinil, Ivoiris & Meditel
Business concepts discussed: Telco developing markets growth strategy, mobile money, telco M&A strategy & developing markets growth strategy.
Conversation highlights:
- (01:22) - Why we’re talking about Orange and why it’s important to African tech
- (05:19) - History of Orange Group and France Telecom
- (10:22) - History of Orange Africa
- (17:56) - Europe's historical influence in Africa tech (vs Indian and Chinese influence today)
- (29:10) - Orange Africa’s non-telco businesses (primarily Orange Money)
- (41:58) - Orange Africa today and growth opportunities
- (47:18) - Orange expanding to South Africa and Nigeria?
- (53:55) - Bankole’s thoughts and overall outlook
- (1:01:27) - Olumide’s thoughts and overall outlook
- (1:05:59) - Recommendations, small wins and open questions
Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:
- Recommendation: Millionaires unveiled podcast
- Small win: Standing during all meetings experiment (going well so far)
- Other content: “Cell C is not an MVNO” article
- Open question: What other non-telco businesses should Orange consider?
Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:
- Recommendation: Hey Email
- Small win: Spent the weekend visiting White Salmon, Washington
- Other content: Minitel, the open network before the Internet - The Atlantic
- Other content: Signal v Noise - Blog by the founders of Basecamp
- Open question: What other companies that are dominant in North Africa or French West Africa should more people be aware of?
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