It is obvious to many that as the traditional revenue streams such as voice and sms are drying up with the advent of messaging apps like Whatsapp, Skype, Facebook Messenger, e.t.c.
Africa is not left out in this development. This is why some of the wise telcos have changed their business model to reduce the reliance of their revenues on these traditional revenue streams. They have opted to go into new areas like Media and Technology, hence the creation of the Technology Media and Telecoms (TMT) business model.
They have now had to do some backward integration to develop some businesses instead of seeing the businesses as Value Added Services.
Three telcos in the African continent that have started changed/changing their models are MTN, Econet and Safaricom.
MTN Group
South African based telecoms giant is truly the biggest telecoms operator in Africa. This has not deterred it from looking into media and technology businesses also. However it has been cautious in the technology space. Apart from its mobile money business, MTN Money, which is still largely tied to the telco operations, it has not developed this business to stand on its own. It has also not created its own eCommerce play. Rather it has invested in the eCommerce business, Jumia.
MTN has not entered into the media space. Though there are rumours that the company is in talks with MultiChoice Africa to buy DSTV and GoTV. Nothing new has been heard about this.
Econet Group
The Strive Masiyiwa-led telecoms provider is currently in the process of transiting into this new model. Apart form their traditional telecoms business, they have launched a new business in the media space – Kwese TV. Kwese is now said to be operating in over 26 countries in Africa. As per the technology business, they have been running the highly profitable EcoCash-fintech business, Ownai-eCommerce business for some time now. The next step will be to roll out the technology businesses alongside their telco operations in other African countries.
Safaricom
Apart from leading telecoms industry in Kenya, Safaricom also has a thriving mobile money business – Mpesa. However it has not been able to export it outside East Africa. It is only present in Kenya and Tanzania. As for other technology businesses, it has invested in Little, a taxi-hailing service and some other startups through its $1 million Spark Venture Fund.
The company recently announced that it would be venturing into ecommerce with the introduction of an ecommerce portal called “Masoko”.
However there has been no mention of the telecoms company venturing into the media space but I guess it will be expected soon. And Safaricom needs to expand its reach into other countries in the continent to make its impact felt beyond East Africa.
