SINGAPORE (Mar 25): Not too long ago, the banks started pushing out credit cards to court mobile phone-wielding millennials with cash backs, dining discounts and travel perks. Now, Singapore’s largest telco is taking a leaf from their playbook.
“We are going to go big on digital and lifestyle,” says Yuen Kuan Moon, CEO of Consumer Singapore at Singtel.
Already, the telco offers a number of lifestyle services, including electricity packages with Geneco and restaurant reservation through its fully owned HungryGoWhere.
Now, Singtel is is rolling out two new initiatives. It is offering 12-month Amazon Prime membership free to new and re-contracting mobile and broadband bundle customers. This will include the Prime Now, Prime Video and gaming platform Twitch Prime services.
The telco is also trying to court users with a new mobile plans under a catchy banner called GOMO (Get Out More Often) with services ranging from instant digital mobile sign-up to same-day SIM card delivery, as well as more flexible data plans with no contract. It also offer members dining offers and discounts on lifestyle and travel services.
Priced at $20 a month, GOMO Mobile offers 20GB of data, 200 minutes talktime, 200 SMS and free Caller ID. Customers who sign up before the end of April will receive a travel SIM worth $20 covering eight countries including Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Singtel says it is targeting anyone who is a digital native. Currently, Singtel app has more than one million users and 23% of them make purchases online regularly. Most of its customers also use mobile data to watch up to nine hours of video each month. But the telco is also targeting customers that are not yet within the Singtel network who may prefer to manage their mobile plans entirely online.
“[Unlike the MVNOs], we cannot afford to have one product, we need a wide range of products because we have a very big audience,” Moon says.
Singtel is hardly alone with its new plans to court a data-driven audience. A couple of Singapore’s virtual mobile operators already offered digital signups, generous data packages and contract-free plans for some time now.
StarHub, the only other listed telco in Singapore, rolled out its #HelloChange mobile packages to consumers in February this year, which offer consumers data-add on of 50GB for $20 a month.
Singtel’s push into the digital space comes as the telco faces increasing competition in Singapore and in the region through its associates. Singtel’s share price has fallen 12% in the last 12 months, mainly from mobile competition in India and Indonesia.
