Despite Morocco’s calls to boycott all
Swedish companies and products amid a political rift with Stockholm, the
Swedish-based Truecaller says it is looking for a local partnership in
order to boost its presence in the Moroccan market.
Founded in 2009 as a crowdsourced
phonebook directory, Truecaller uses address books voluntarily uploaded
by consumers, combined with existing yellow pages and white pages
directories to allow its mobile app and website users identify callers
through a reverse number lookup. Users can also block calls from
reported spammers.
The Swedish company, which says it
maintains the world’s largest phone directory, already has two million
users in Morocco and is aspiring to reach 3 million users by the end of
the year, according to Misherghi Husain, vice president in charge of
growth and partnerships in the MENA region.
Misherghi Husain said during a media
briefing held on Thursday that Morocco is among the ten markets
recording the fastest growth in the world. “Within the past three
months, the Moroccan base grew by 20 percent,” he noted.
Misherghi went on to add that the company
is well liked by Moroccan users, and has become an essential app on
Moroccans’ smart phones, just like Facebook and Whatsapp. The
company currently has more than 150 million users worldwide, with those
in the MENA region representing almost a quarter of its global user
base.