Deezer expands into Africa as Orange tie-up brings it to Ivory Coast and Mauritius

One week after Deezer announced its launch in 35 Latin American territories, the music-streaming service has finally taken its first tentative steps into Africa thanks to a hook-up with telecoms company Orange.

Back in December, we reported that Spotify competitor Deezer was to begin rolling out in 200 countries (but not the USA). And whilst it took a big step towards this last week with its Latin American roll-out, it seems the company has fallen a little behind its originally announced global expansion.

The France-based company declared its intentions to hit 200 countries, noting that by January 31, 2012, Canada and Latin America (38 territories) would be added to its roster, with Australasia to follow the month after. As it transpired, the service launched in Canada, Australia and New Zealand in April, and Latin America had to wait until June.

Deezer finally hits Africa

Interestingly, it had originally announced that it planned to hit Africa by February, but it seems that for whatever reason – presumably protracted negotiations with launch partner Orange – it has taken somewhat longer.

Before yesterday, Deezer was available in more than 80 countries, and now that it has launched in Mauritius and Ivory Coast, this could kick-start the company’s planned growth in a potentially huge market. By comparison, Spotify is available in less than 20 countries, though it does have the USA sewn up – a country Deezer has no immediate intentions of touching.

Deezer also partnered with Orange as part of its UK launch last year, and previously in France back in 2010. And now Deezer Premium+ will be bundled with Orange Internet tariff plans in two African countries this could herald a slew of new market launches across Africa, perhaps even independently of any operator partnership.

As part of this announcement, Deezer and Orange also launched a partnership for Poland too, a market that already has Deezer available to the public. The Middle East will apparently be following suit shortly with Orange/Deezer tie-ups, as will more countries across Europe and Africa.

Deezer was launched in France in August 2007, and it reached agreements with the French copyright societies, major and independent labels between 2007 and 2009. Today, the music-streaming service has somewhere in the region of 20m users and offers 18m tracks.

Image Credit: Abdallahh | Flickr