The rapid rise of the Asian consumer is a story that could play out for half of this century with one billion people expected to become middle-class by the end of the decade. This means business worth a trillion dollars is up for grabs in Asia for telecom service providers, says research firm International Data Corporation (IDC).
Leading the pack of consumer opportunity is ‘X-commerce,’ which is nothing but mobile commerce or e-commerce, providing opportunities to telecom service providers to the tune of around $540 billion in the next three years.
Some of the larger opportunities for regional telecom service providers in 2016 will come from consumer mobility ($313 billion), smartphones ($188 billion), digital content ($88 billion) and Internet/mobile advertising ($29 billion), says IDC.
Indian telecom companies will at some point look into these opportunities. They have little choice to transform, if not now, it will be later, said Adrian Dominic Ho, Principal Telecom, Mobility Lead, IDC Asia/Pacific.
Big e-commerce market
China will be a big market for e-commerce and they already have large ecommerce retailers like Alibaba so this is not new to them. Telecom companies should look into adopting these models, he told Business Line .
Similarly, Korea is a big market for downloading of applications and mobile content, so are mature markets such as Singapore, Australia and even Hong Kong.
“Asian telecom service providers must reinvent themselves to grasp the trillion dollar Asian consumer opportunity,” he said.
He explains that telecom companies prospered with the rise of the Asian consumer spending. “The radical change in the Asian consumer has translated to the emergence and rise of what is called the digital market economy,” he adds.
According to Ho, the digital market economy will include everything from content development, application marketplace to mobile advertising and everything Xcommerce.
“The transformation to digital content service providers for telecom companies will not happen overnight but it is highly encouraging that telecom companies like Singtel, Telstra and SK Telecom have set up separate divisions and entities to focus on these exciting new opportunities,” said Ho.
However, he stresses that an enormous amount of work and new partnerships are required.
“In addition, some deep pockets in the form of venture capital investments and seeding investments would also be required.”