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“Blitzscaling” in African Markets: Opera’s Opay Optimizes Its Operations

by Emeka Ajene

Recently, OPay, the Chinese-backed super app operating in Nigeria made an announcement that garnered plenty of attention.

Best known for its lime-green ‘Uber for motorcycle taxis’ service, the company, which is backed by Softbank and Meituan Dianping (China’s other super app), announced the suspension of its ride-hailing & logistics services, ORide, OCar, and OExpress. And while not explicitly named in the company’s statement, OFood, the company’s food delivery service, has been suspended as well. (The OFood service has been removed from the app, and the Twitter account has been deleted.)

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