Orange, the French multinational Telecommunications Corporation, has entered into an exclusive partnership with Baidu, the Chinese internet company, to develop a co-branded internet browser for smartphone customers in Africa, the Middle East and Asia (AMEA).
This will be the first time Baidu is signing such an agreement with a global operator and this supports Orange and Baidu’s aim to make the mobile web available for all in emerging markets.
The new browser, available in Arabic, English, and a French version in development, will be pre-installed and available via download on Android devices across Orange’s African footprint in 2013.
Marc Rennard, senior executive vice president for Orange activities across Africa and the Middle East, commented: “The appetite for mobile internet services is very strong in Africa, for example demand for Android devices in Egypt has doubled in the second half of this year. Price and access have been a barrier to entry, but partnering with innovative companies like Baidu provide unique solutions that give our customers affordable access to all the services they desire without compromising on features or ease-of-use. Building on the partnerships we’ve signed with major brands such as Wikipedia and Facebook in AMEA, we continue to innovate in Africa and honour our commitment to make the internet accessible to all customers across our footprint.”
With nearly 80 million potential customers and at hand and in 16 countries in AMEA, Baidu could certainly give Google a run for its money yet again, Engadget says.
France Telecom-Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 45.3 billion euros for 2011 and has 170,000 employees worldwide at 30 September 2012, including 105,000 employees in France. Present in 33 countries, the Group has a total customer base of 227 million customers at 30 September 2012, including 169 million mobile customers and 15 million broadband internet (ADSL, fibre) customers worldwide.
