Asia will soon be presenting a trillion-dollar opportunity for the telecommunications industry.
Research firm IDC said by 2016, regional telecom service providers can expect opportunities from Xcommerce ($540 billion), consumer mobility ($313 billion), smartphones ($188 billion), digital content ($88 billion) and internet/mobile advertising ($29 billion).
But getting a share of the big pie is also one big challenge.
“Telcos need to reinvent themselves to accommodate the Asian consumer who has radically reinvented themselves,” said Adrian Dominic Ho, Principal Telecom, Mobility Lead.
Ho explained that telcos, whose very existence embodied the concept of consumerism for the longest time, prospered with the rise of the Asian consumer spending.
The big question that IDC asks is: Are telecom service providers in the region savvy enough to modernize and transform themselves in ways that will give them the edge in a consumer driven economy?
The research firm said 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. Global and rising Asian multinational corporations (MNCs) are also radically retooling their strategy and business models to take advantage and realize what could possibly be a period of unprecedented sustained high growth.
“The radical change in the Asian consumer has translated to the emergence and rise of what is called the digital market economy,” Ho said.
This digital market economy would include everything from content development, application marketplace to mobile advertising and everything Xcommerce. The potential and possibilities are only limited by the telcos' imagination in what is truly a trillion dollar cross-border opportunity.
“The transformation to digital content service providers for telcos will not happen overnight but it is highly encouraging that telcos like Singtel, Telstra and SK Telecom have set up separate divisions and entities to focus on these exciting new opportunities,” Ho observed..
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,” he emphasized.