Operators should consider extending connectivity plans, exerting control over the device ecosystem, working with OTT players and offering new services.
Mobile operators in Asia-Pacific (APAC) face challenges such as fragmenting customer demand, value shifting towards handsets, a decline in traditional service revenue and increasing over-the-top (OTT) service substitution. This report focuses on aspects of Analysys Mason's annual Connected Consumer Survey that relate to the behaviour, preferences and plans of OTT communication app users in three countries in Asia-Pacific. We cover a diverse set of trends, including: customer retention, use of OTT communication services, and consumer attitudes towards digital economy services, such as mobile money and healthcare.
This report answers the following key questions about the mobile market in APAC.
- How can mobile operators improve customer retention?
- What are the drivers of churn?
- What attracts customers to an operator?
- What do device sales mean to operators?
- How can operators address OTT challenges?
- What is the opportunity that operators have with mobile money and healthcare services?
DATA COVERAGE
The research was conducted in July and August 2014. The survey groups in Europe and the USA were chosen to be demographically representative of the broader online consumer population, and those in Africa, Asia and the Middle East were chosen to be representative of the mobile-Internet-using population. We set quotas on age, gender and employment status to that effect. There were a minimum of 1000 respondents per country, and 22 174 respondents.
GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE
Table of Contents
- 7. Executive summary
- 8. Network performance is an influential factor in operator selection, and multiple-SIM device ownership is fragmenting demand
- 9. Messaging is the most popular OTT communication service, but paid-for VoIP has achieved significant adoption
- 10. Operators could find new revenue streams in the digital economy - mobile finance and healthcare are among the best options
- 11. Challenges and recommendations
- 12. Drivers of churn and multiple-SIM ownership
- 13. Consumer loyalty to mobile operators is lower in Asia-Pacific than the worldwide average, and multiple-SIM ownership is common in EMAP
- 14. Extending connectivity plans (multi-device and multi-user) can help to consolidate fragmented consumer demand
- 15. Price, coverage and speed are valued highly by consumers, particularly in emerging markets, but handset deals are important everywhere
- 16. Almost 40% of consumers in Indonesia and Malaysia know about LTE but do not have it, and data speed is more important than price
- 17. Most consumers are willing to pay a premium for LTE - particularly in emerging markets
- 18. The relative importance of devices to services is changing, and Indonesia has the highest ratio of annual spend on handsets compared to services
- 19. Operators already play a well-established role in handset sales channels, but greater influence may mitigate fragmentation of the relationship
- 20. Addressing and exploiting OTT services
- 21. OTT messaging services are replacing SMS usage, but the impact of OTT VoIP services will be controllable especially in EMAP
- 22. Operators need to offer a sufficient amount of text messages to ensure that customers do not need messaging apps
- 23. VoLTE and operator-led VoIP may help operators to protect the voice business
- 24. Operators can protect their established business, or partner with, enable or become OTT players
- 25. Many operators are protecting their business and entering partnerships, but leading ones are providing next-generation services and OTT enablement
- 26. New revenue opportunities in the digital economy
- 27. Mobile financial and health are among the services with the most digital economy initiatives
- 28. Indonesia's mobile money market was the most competitive and fragmented
- 29. Mobile healthcare-related apps have good penetration levels in the three Asia-Pacific countries
- 30. Mobile health services have strong potential because nearly 60% of respondents pay for their own healthcare insurance services
- 31. Methodology and panel information
- 32. Methodology and panel information
- 33. Methodology and panel information
- 34. About the authors
- 35. About the authors
- 36. About Analysys Mason
- 37. Research from Analysys Mason
- 38. Consulting from Analysys Mason
List of figures
- Figure 1: Geographical coverage of our Connected Consumer Survey 2015
- Figure 2: Respondents by number of SIMs owned, and percentage of respondents who had a multiple-SIM handset, by country, Asia-Pacific
- Figure 3: Usage of SMS and messaging or social communication apps, by country
- Figure 4: Percentage of respondents who have never changed operator, use more than one SIM and use a multiple-SIM handset, by country
- Figure 5: Length of time respondents have been with their current mobile operator, by country or region
- Figure 6: Types of multiple-device tariff structure
- Figure 7: Main attractions cited by respondents when choosing an operator
- Figure 8: Main reasons cited by respondents for churn
- Figure 9: Awareness and adoption of LTE, by country
- Figure 10: Factors that would increase mobile Internet usage, by country
- Figure 11: Respondents' willingness to pay a premium for LTE
- Figure 12: Comparison of spending on handset and service
- Figure 13: Comparison of respondents' average annual spending on devices and services, by country
- Figure 14: Respondents' estimates of the number of years before they replace their handset, by country
- Figure 15: Handsets by service bundling status and by sales channel, by region
- Figure 16: Active users of OTT messaging services on smartphones, and penetration, by region, Asia-Pacific, 2010-2018
- Figure 17: Active users of OTT VoIP applications on smartphones, and penetration, by region, Asia-Pacific, 2010-2018
- Figure 18: Usage of SMS and messaging or social communication apps, by country
- Figure 19: Reasons cited by respondents for not using OTT messaging apps, by country
- Figure 20: Usage of OTT communication services, by country
- Figure 21: Operators' approaches to over-the-top (OTT) services, with examples from Asia-Pacific
- Figure 22: Options for operators that want to enable OTT players
- Figure 23: Operators' digital economy initiatives in Asia-Pacific
- Figure 24: Average readiness score and percentage of operators active in the digital economy, by vertical
- Figure 25: Mobile money providers, Indonesia
- Figure 26: Mobile money providers, Malaysia
- Figure 27: Mobile money providers, South Korea
- Figure 28: Respondents who use healthcare or fitness apps, by country
- Figure 29: Respondents who use various healthcare/fitness apps, by gender
- Figure 30: Respondents with medical insurance, and insurance payment bearers
