Across our associates’ markets, the biggest growth has been in data, as consumers embrace connected, digital lifestyles. The number of data subscribers surged past 220 million – a 12% increase from the previous year. For many of our customers, the mobile phone is a primary way for them to access the internet, and digital services are driving social and financial inclusion in ways that were never possible before.
Mobile payments have proved popular in these emerging markets, where a large part of the population does not have credit cards or bank accounts. In order to capitalise on this trend, our associates now offer a range of banking and financial services to support their customers’ needs. In India, Airtel became the first entity to receive a payments bank licence from the Reserve Bank of India. In January 2017, it launched Airtel Payments Bank to offer banking services across the country, with 250,000 Airtel retail outlets doubling as banking points and a network of over 1 million merchants accepting digital payments.
In the Philippines, Globe’s wholly owned subsidiary, Mynt, has partnered Ant Financial Services Group, one of the world’s leading digital financial services providers, to accelerate financial inclusion and upgrade payments services in the Philippines. This includes the use of GCash, a micropayment service, to top up pre-paid balances, pay bills, send money, make donations, shop online and purchase goods without the use of cash. By leveraging the power of mobile and digital technology, Mynt has been able to pioneer initiatives that provide Filipinos with safe, secure and convenient financial services that were previously not available to them.
As mobile entertainment consumption continues to enjoy exponential growth, our associates are offering exclusive content to differentiate themselves. In the Philippines, Globe created Globe Studios and Globe Live, which are revolutionising the entertainment landscape in the Philippines with the production of original shows from top film directors and world-class live entertainment events. In another first for Globe, it partnered Netflix to offer customers access to a wide range of TV shows and movies via their mobile or broadband service. In Thailand, AIS signed exclusive deals with HBO and NBA to offer content to customers over the AIS Play mobile app, and AIS Playbox service for the latter. AIS also acquired the rights to 21 Fox channels on AIS Play and Playbox to further strengthen their suite of content offerings. In Indonesia, Telkomsel launched VideoMAX, a service which gives customers access to thousands of premium movies and TV series on demand from HOOQ and Viu, directly on their smartphones and tablets.
With more customers spending longer hours on their smartphones each day, our associates are also finding innovative ways to engage their customers by positioning their mobile apps as lifestyle tools. In India, Airtel re-launched its My Airtel App to offer customers 2GB of free cloud storage to store their data, and a dialler to manage their calls. Globe’s Switch and Telkomsel’s LOOPkita apps come with data management features to improve the data experience for first-time users by allowing them to control their usage. Each app also serves as a convenient channel for customers to recharge their prepaid balance, upgrade their subscription plans and discover new content or data services.
Globe has launched Gie, a virtual assistant available over Viber and Facebook Messenger, to enable one-on-one conversations with customers. Since its launch, employee productivity has increased threefold, along with a 50% reduction in calls to Globe's call centres.
To meet the growing demand for faster and more reliable data services, our associates are boosting their 3G and 4G network quality and capacity. Airtel India, AIS and Globe have acquired more spectrum to improve network coverage and user experience. In Thailand, AIS has expanded its coverage to 98% since the launch of 4G in 2016 and introduced VoLTE for crystal clear voice service. Airtel now has 4G coverage in all 22 circles in India, giving it the widest mobile broadband footprint in the country. In the Philippines, Globe has been expanding its 4G coverage and capacities, including the roll-out of 500 LTE700 sites while in Indonesia, Telkomsel has 22 million LTE subscribers as of March 2017.
Collaboration is key to our engagements with our associates, and in 2016, we deepened our relationships with Airtel and AIS through an acquisition of shares in Bharti Telecom and Intouch Holdings. We work together closely through the Centres of Excellence framework, which provides a platform to exchange ideas on innovations, product strategies and operational best practices. Some of the initiatives include our Regional CEO Forum, Product Innovation Fair, joint negotiation for devices and SIM cards, as well as our first regional video competition, "The 5-Min Video Challenge".
Content is a significant part of our Group's strategy to connect with our customers. "The 5-Min Video Challenge" represents our efforts to drive content creation and innovation across our markets by nurturing and giving talented film makers a platform for their creative vision, while giving our mobile subscriber base new original content. The inaugural competition attracted a rich variety of original content with close to 600 video submissions, and the shortlisted entries drew over 1 million views. We hope to work with the newly discovered talent and their ideas on future projects for the Group’s mobile and video platforms, such as Globe Studios and AIS Play.
Our collaborative efforts in the region also extend to sharing a payment gateway for the Group – the Singtel Open Platform. The Singtel Open Platform is a common payment gateway for Singtel, Optus and our regional associates. This one-stop shop significantly reduces the integration effort and time for our business partners. Customers can also conveniently pay for services through direct carrier billing and mobile wallets.
