Sixth Tone published on 5 October 2026 an article titled "The Transsion Story: How a Chinese Firm Conquered Africa's Tech Market" by Cai Yiwen.
China's Transsion makes nearly half of all the cell phones bought in Africa, beating competition from Samsung, Apple, and Huawei. The phones meet basic communication needs of low-income users with features adapted specifically for the African market.
Tech Central published on 24 July 2026 an article titled "Africa's Most Popular Phones Have a Tracking Problem" by Fanie van Rooyen.
Of the 84 million smartphones shipped to Africa in 2025, more than 40 million were made by China's Transsion, a Shenzhen-based manufacturer that owns the Tecno, Infinix, and Itel brands. New research has decrypted the phones and found a built-in tracking system that reports a user's precise location, which apps they use, how much data each app consumes, and the moment an app switches on the camera. These data are tied to roughly 14 permanent device identifiers that a user cannot reset. This creates a common thread linking every captured event back to the exact same handset over its entire lifespan.
While other smartphones also collect data, Transsion has not been transparent in what its handsets are doing.
Yicai published on 5 December 2022 an article titled "Chinese Owner of African Hit Phone Brands Tecno, Itel Jumps on Google Partnership" by Xu Wei.
Transsion Holdings, the leading smartphone supplier in Africa with handset brands Tecno, Itel, and Infinix, announced it will team up with Google on the Android operating system, online advertising, and cloud services. Transsion will use Google's advertising tools to help transform its digital platform business, improve its advertising monetization, and use Google Cloud to enhance its operational capabilities.
china-africa relations
