Devices & Platforms

To the max? Orange has high hopes for African super app

To the max? Orange has high hopes for African super app

Last week, we examined how Orange Group is building ecosystems across its MEA footprint through its Digital Centres initiative – but these training spaces are not the only pillar of Orange’s strategy in the region.

As part of its Trust the Future strategy, Orange is ramping up the rollout of its super app Max It in a bid to make it available to every customer. Yasser Shaker, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa, argues that Orange’s long-standing roots in Africa and the Middle East have given the group a deep understanding of user needs and usage patterns for applications. Max It reflects this idea, encompassing operator services such as data and airtime top-up along with Orange Money for finance and other digital services, including streaming, gaming, and even utilities such as Orange Energies.

Max It is currently available in 16 countries, with 23 million active users – among them 8 million Orange Money users – and Orange has big plans to grow this ecosystem, with a stated goal of bringing on board a further 50 million users by 2028 by expanding with local and global partners. Over 50% of smartphones in Africa are entry-level, meaning they are restricted in terms of storage and functionality, which can affect the possibilities Max It can offer, but the core principles remain.

Shaker says: “For our next ambition of 75 million users, our model will evolve further and leverage partnerships and the resale of services, such as television. While this will create new and different margin structures, our long-term strategy is to prioritise growth and ecosystem development rather than immediate high margin returns.”  

But how realistic are these lofty ambitions? Super apps have seen significant success in Asia-Pacific – notably China’s WeChat - but more mixed results in Africa. MTN Group had high hopes that its Ayoba super app would snowball across its pan-African footprint, but ultimately decided to pull the plug on Ayoba in March 2026 after it maxed out at around 35 million users – a relatively insignificant percentage of MTN’s overall user base of 288 million, but notably more than Orange has thus far achieved with Max It.

Orange maintains that Max It offers significant consumer value via its convergent pricing and dynamic offerings – for example, bundling access to video content, such as a licence to watch a sports match, with the data required to stream the game on a device. Services within the app are complementary – they can be purchased using airtime credit for redeemable points, or via Orange Money. Additionally, merchants can broaden their offerings by easily plugging in to Max It’s partner ecosystem, allowing them to reach its user base.

Shaker notes that the success of Africa’s mobile banking sector will further accelerate Max It’s ability to attract more customers, given that Orange Money is integrated into it. A recent GMSA report showed that around 40% of people in sub-Saharan Africa are currently unbanked, which presents a great deal of opportunity for mobile finance brands in the region – Orange Money in fact saw an increase of almost 20% in revenue compared to 2024 in the last year alone.  

GlobalData’s Emma Mohr-McClune notes telco super apps are relatively immature and untested in Africa, so it’s too early to call success or failure – Ayoba notwithstanding. She cautions that there are numerous challenges, chief among them language multiplicity, and notes that Africa’s “broad and fragmented distinct dialect landscape” is something that Orange is “investing heavily in ironing out”.

Orange believes that Max It’s relevance hinges on local proximity services, which will be underscored by AI integration to provide vocal interfaces in local languages - although this is of course a big challenge for communities. The group is helping indigenous speakers to build AI models of various African languages which can then help facilitate access to technology such as Max It – particularly in areas with low literacy rates. Training the AI with the relevant data takes time, and the interfaces must be optimised to achieve a simple but high-quality user experience fuelled by local speakers.

Mohr-McClune adds that another major challenge is the complexity of migrating millions of customers from existing legacy apps - and particularly long-standing and well-used financial services apps such as M-PESA and Orange Money - onto a new, all-in-one and unfamiliar super app user interface. Consumers are notoriously resistant to migrating from the app interface they know and trust, but this is particularly the case for apps that have become critical for millions of small business owners and unbanked individuals.

For its part, Orange argues that Max It offers a simplified integrated user experience to make customers’ lives easier, which it believes will encourage adoption of the super app over single-function apps. A key factor here is that users are already familiar with its interface, which is lifted from Orange Money but in this context can be used to access a wider range of services – including bill payments, eCommerce and banking - and the app adapts to different markets based on the local payment fabric.

Shaker argues that Max It’s success will come down to the breadth of its offering – spanning messaging, television, gaming, marketplaces, financial services, and telecommunications. This diversification will be essential if the super app is to sustainably grow its user base.



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