Tpay Mobile to develop in-app purchases platform for Huawei in MEA

As Huawei continues to build its app ecosystem, the ability to monetise apps is critical to attracting developers to its app store.

Now Huawei has teamed with fintech TPay Mobile to develop the infrastructure for in-app purchases in its AppGallery app store in the Middle East and Africa region.

TPay Mobile’s Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) service offers Huawei’s users in the MEA region the ability to pay for their apps and services through their mobile phone number. This will make it more accessible for Huawei and HONOR device users to pay for online services and apps on HMS.

The first phase of the agreement will offer DCB services in 10 countries across the MEA region, including mobile subscribers in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman.

“We welcome the opportunity to partner with Tpay Mobile and as a result provide our users with more payment options. By working with Tpay Mobile we have been able to make it easier for local and global developers to monetise their apps and services to millions of more people in the MEA region,” said Adam Xiao, managing director, HMS and Consumer Cloud Service for Huawei Consumer Business Group MEA.

Read: Huawei mobile app store attracts 1.6 million developers

Under US sanctions, Huawei has been prohibited from accessing Google Mobile Services, including the Play Store, forcing the Chinese company to develop its own app ecosystem from scratch. It now has the third-largest app store in the world after Android and iOs.

Huawei recently announced its app store has attracted 1.6 million developers as the number of mobile users hits 700 million.

Huawei has announced several initiatives to attract regional developers to its AppGallery platform. It held its first MENA developer Day last year as part of its $1bn Shining Star Program to incentivise global developers. So far more than 10,000 apps have benefited from the initiative, the company says.