The Philippines' Globe Telecom has challenged rival PLDT's claim of being the postpaid market leader, asserting that revenue is a more meaningful metric than number of customers.
PLDT revealed earlier this month that its postpaid mobile subscriber base grew by 387,000 to 2.8 million during 2014, giving it a 55% share of the postpaid market.
In correspondence with TelecomAsia, Globe acknowledged that PLDT has the edge in the postpaid market when combining their mobile brands Sun and Smart. But the company noted that as a brand, Globe has more postpaid customers than either of PLDT's brands alone.
Globe also challenged the Philippines' use of an operator's subscriber base as the metric for determining market leadership.
“It’s about time that telecom market leadership in the Philippines is redefined to one that is profitable as well as sustainable,” Globe senior advisor for consumer business Dan Horan said.
“Globe wants to set this standard in the Philippines for other emerging markets to follow and define market leadership using revenues as the more relevant metric, the same industry standard used by leading telcos around the world.”
Globe has captured around 58% of total postpaid market revenues for each of the last three years, he said. In 2014, the operator reported postpaid revenue of 29.91 billion pesos ($1.94 billion), compared to 21.65 billion pesos for Smart and Sun combined.
“Clearly, mobile postpaid is a segment that Globe has dominated through the years based on this global leadership metric,” Horan said.
REVENUES (in Peso millions) | 2012 | Revenue mkt share (%) | 2013 | Revenue mkt share (%) | 2014 | Revenue mkt share (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Globe | 22,847 | 58% | 27,064 | 58.7% | 29,919 | 58% |
Smart and Sun | 16,517 | 42% | 19,042 | 41.3% | 21,653 | 42% |
Statistics compiled by Globe Telecomusing officially disclosed figures from Globe and PLDT