Zain Group announced at MWC that it will launch the Zain Group Application Program Interface (API) Platform.
Zain will initially launch the platform with a pilot phase in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and will be thereafter gradually extended to all Zain operations. The operator plans to introduce the group-wide API program and connect its operating companies across the region onto a single enablement platform.
For that, Zain will work alongside the Apigee team at Google Cloud as the API platform provider, FOO, a leading regional mobile digital solutions entity as the developer, and Shift Technologies, the leading Apigee Edge API Platform implementer in the Middle East region.
Zain has also partnered with the global alternative payments provider DOCOMO Digital, the European unit of Japan’s NTT DOCOMO, as its first new content partner using the new API layer.
DOCOMO Digital offers an advanced mobile commerce ecosystem-enabling platform that encourages financial inclusion for citizens worldwide. Thanks to this partnership, DOCOMO Digital will enable Zain with the most advanced VAS Digital Content hosted on its own Product Frameworks and supported by a Best in Class Advertising Solution Platform & Service.
Zain Kuwait and Zain Saudi Arabia will be the first operations to offer DOCOMO Digital’s services.
Bader Al-Kharafi, VP and Group CEO, Zain
We are pleased to be collaborating with more blue-chip technology companies in the form of Google and DOCOMO Digital in rolling the platform initially in Kuwait. In an ever-evolving and challenging telecommunications market, technology acts as an enabler for service differentiation and digital enablement.
Hiroyuki Sato, CEO of DOCOMO Digital
Our partnership with Zain is very strategic, demonstrating the focus DOCOMO Digital has on MEA to drive scalable growth for our payments and content platform services.