Fast growing consumer app, Truecaller, has announced that it will set up its headquarters in Africa, thereby expanding its operations on the continent. For Truecaller, this move signifies the importance of Africa as a key priority region by increasing its presence on the continent.
Truecaller executives will be visiting Nigeria and South Africa in the first week of November to scout for a location to set up the company’s Africa headquarters. During this visit, the company’s senior executives will meet with the media in each market to present its plan for the region and launch its Developer Program with Truecaller SDK, its mobile identity product for digital start-ups and app developers.
Truecaller has emerged as one of the fastest growing consumer apps in Africa; and has consistently been topping the App Store Charts across the continent for the past two years. The Truecaller app, which allows people to see who is calling, and filter out spam calls and SMS, currently has more than 50 million users in Africa. The service is helping users block more than half a billion spam calls on a monthly basis in the region; and more than 50% of all messages being filtered is considered as spam.
In a recent study conducted by Truecaller, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt rank among the top 20 countries in the world being plagued by unwanted spam calls.
“The tremendous growth we’ve had across Africa the past two years has truly been amazing and yet we feel it is still only the starting point of what is about to come. With the positive momentum, we are confident this is the right timing for us to expand our presence and start engaging more deeply with the eco-system” said Ted Nelson, Chief Commercial Officer at Truecaller.
Along with the recent announcement of Truecaller Ads opening up for the African market, Truecaller will now be launching its Developer Program for Africa starting with its mobile identity product, Truecaller SDK. The program enables third party app developers, digital businesses and startups to verify end users quickly and seamlessly by utilizing their Truecaller profile with a one touch and password free experience. The Truecaller SDK is available on Android, iOS and web platforms and can be used by any app or a website to instantly onboard, autofill user information, or verify the user’s phone number based identity through users’ consent.
Priyam Bose, Director and Head of Worldwide Developer Relations at Truecaller said: “Truecaller SDK is a catalyst in our journey to become the mobile identity platform of choice. The ubiquitous phone number is already the native identity for millions of users both online and who are yet to come online, especially in Africa. For the next billion connected users, the email based web identity will not even be a relevant option. With the smartphone penetration and digitisation increasing at a rapid pace, we believe it’s the right time to launch our Global Developer Program for local app developers, start-ups and online businesses in the African continent.”
