WSJ: Selling Potatoes By Phone
Below I will re-post a full (almost) article as it was reported by the Wall Street Journal here.
Why did I decide to re-post it here? Just because, I am the Editor! Well, more precisely — because it is interesting. Wait. No: because it gives us ideas about what to do in poor countries which love VAS more than rich countries. Why do they love VAS? Because poor countries use mobile phones not just to call but to enjoy every little thing on them. And there are indeed a lot of hidden treasures even in the simplest mobile phones. Mobile phones can supply crucial data and they do substitute computers and Internet. The question in this context is “How to build a profitable business model?” Read more
Chinese Telco Restructuring Opens Sales Opportunities
From Yahoo News:
Analysts say AsiaInfo (NasdaqGM:ASIA), a Beijing company, which sells key back-office support to wireless carriers, is set for explosive growth after China announced a massive wireless industry restructuring in May. The announcement spurred investor interest in the company driving up its share priсe more than 15% in the weeks following the news. AsiaInfo is the leader in its market. It provides software that helps China Mobile and Unicom with billing, setting up customer accounts, customer management and data analytics.
Chinese telco restructuring will create two strong carriers to compete against market behemoth China Mobile (NYSE:CHL). China Mobile has been the clear market dominator with more than 65% of wireless cell phone users and having little threat from China Unicom. China Unicom (NYSE:CHU) the country’s No. 2 mobile phone company, will buy China Netcom Group (NYSE:CN) for $23.8 billion in stock. China Unicom also will sell part of its wireless business to fixed-line carrier China Telecom (NYSE:CHA) for $15.9 billion, creating the third wireless provider.
Mobile Internet: Networking Sites Are Most Popular
Opera Mini is the most used web browser on mobile phones.
Recently the creators of Opera has published a report on Opera Mini use.
They concluded that:
- Social networking is popular worldwide and is the leading source of Web traffic for mobile devices.
Almost 40% of traffic worldwide is to social networks. In some countries, such as the United States, South Africa and Indonesia, the social Web accounts for more than 60% of the traffic. Read more
Asian women – lucrative targets for travel and hospitality industry
Some interesting facts about female travelers in Asia from Singapore travel agencies.
Resume: Women travel to taste and enjoy their financial independence. They are more adventurous than men. They do it for themselves (men prefer to spend money for expensive “toys” to imress others then for jorney). They need shopping (read “spending money”) as therapy. They begin to travel more than men.
“In fact, with women in Asia making around 125 million trips a year – within Asia and elsewhere – they are set to play a decisive role in the development of the travel, hospitality and tourism sectors in the next decade, says Mr Don Birch, CEO of travel facilitator Abacus International.
MasterCard study conducted in major Asian markets this year, revealed that 42 per cent of women surveyed travelled in the last 12 months, compared to 37 per cent of the men.
In Asia, the most active female travellers are from developed cities like Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong, where the women have more disposable income.
Read more on justwoman.asiaone.com
TAT to improve the reputation of Thai tourism
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has begun new campaign to “improve and edit all the information about Thailand”. The online campaign includes editing of articles about Thailand on Wikipedia and developing of web-portal with TAT’s and traveler’s UGC content about the country.
Good initiative.
TAT should also pay more attention to mobile media (in addition to this online campain), helping tourisits in a time of visit.
Now, for example, AIS mobile service for travelers doesn’t work. ConciergeGo, another source of information about major Asian cities on mobile, has no information about Thailand too.
SingTel promotes innovative mobile applications
Singapore’s leading operator, SingTel, has recently announced its $2.3 million Partner Programme which aim is to bring new applications for mobile market.
Mon, Jan 14, 2008
The Straits Times
“Developers will get access to the latest software tools, mobile phones and even preferential cellphone charges as part of plan to market more homegrown applications.
If they are deemed good enough by SingTel, their software may also be marketed to the region with the help of the telco. Altogether, SingTel and its partner telcos in the region have 158 million mobile subcriptions, dwarfing the 5.4 million subscriptions here.
< ...>Such projects are common with cellphone operators the world over as they seek the next big game or application that companies and consumers will use on their small screens”.
The project supported by Infocomm Development Authority and industry vendors like Nokia and Microsoft
Sistema Took a Foothold in India
Source: http://www.cnews.ru/, 01/12/08
The Indian authorities came to the unexpected decision in distribution of telecommunication licenses. JSFC Sistema, the largest Russian telecommunication corporation, received the nationwide license to operate on the whole territory of India at the time when a whole group of companies with much higher priority for receiving Indian telecommunication licenses were suspended from participation in the tender for the licenses. Analysts are sure that Russians have won the tender only due to their administrative resources.
Travel Distribution Summit Asia 2008
15-16 March 2008. Suntec Convention Centre, Singapore
TDS is the only event of its kind Asia, where over 800 top travel executives will gather once again to expand their understanding of this exciting region.
More information on eyefortravel.com
Travel in Asia to shoot to record levels
Some impressive statistics on China Tourism.
Sources: china-embassy.org, usembassy-china.org.cn , mindbranch.com
The Third Wave of Tourism Is Coming from Asia
In the near future Asian tourists will determine major travel trends. European and American eras of tourism have passed, and Asian period is coming.
This phase will see two-third’s of the world’s population, mainly in China and India, attaining a level of economic development where their populations will start to travel.
By 2015 there could be 9 million outbound tourists from India and 67 million from China.
Today, the stage is set for the Asian era of tourism.
Asia accounts for some 35-40% of the world’s GDP. China’s imports exceed those of the US, and combined financial reserves of China, Japan and the rest of Asia underpins the deficits of the West.
But the most important demographic trend is the rise of the Asian middle class, particularly in India and China, which account for almost 40% of the world’s population.
“In every society, it is the new middle class which provides the greatest impetus to domestic and outbound tourism, as the newly rich aspire to see the world around them,” said Mr Ho, Chairman of Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts.
Defined as those earning around US$10,000 a year, the global middle class, now accounting for less than 8% of the world’s population, will reach around 1.2 billion by 2030.
And within a decade, China will displace Japan and be second only to the US, with a 20% share of the world’s richest people.
Source: stbpassport.com
