Globe Telecom’s strong mobile performance disproves global telco market prediction of revenue downfall

Globe Telecom was able to overcome global market predictions of a financial slowdown in the telecommunications industry after its overall service revenues rose steadily in the past five years. This was propelled by innovative mobile strategies such as customized mobile plans and promos, wider content offerings, and streamlined customer experience.

Back in 2013, analysts from Ovum, London-based independent consultancy firm specializing in telecommunications, predicted that no other region in the world but Africa will see revenue growth at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) above 3% between 2012 and 2018. It added that service revenues of operators globally will contract in 2018 for the first time in the history of mobile industry.

With strong mobile strategies in place, Globe witnessed a 9.1% CAGR for its overall service revenues from 2014 to 2018, outperforming its main competitor and the local telco industry during the same period. Globe Telecom’s CAGR in the past five years was also higher than the 5.6% it recorded from 2009 to 2013. CAGR shows the rate of return of an investment over a certain period of time.

“We are proud that our strategy of disrupting the telco business model delivered consistent financial results in the past five years. With our unwavering commitment to bring our customers better quality of experience, we will continue making positive strides in the ICT and digital space. We will step up our efforts on managing costs, growing revenues, and driving efficiencies to fuel further our digitalization efforts for our customers,” said Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu.

The company’s rapid growth in service revenues is key in fueling investments for better innovations in digital solutions, wider access to content, more bundled offers, and better quality of user experience. Geared to meet the customer demand for more bandwidth-intensive content, Globe has increased its capital expenditure (capex) guidance to PHP63 billion in 2019.

Globe in 2018 started delivering cloud-based intelligent omni-channel routing and interactions management to boost customer experience. Amdocs, a provider of software and services to communications and media companies, collaborated with Amazon Web Services to enable Globe to deliver effortless experience across all touchpoints, including web portal, self-service and mobile applications, as well as social media and messaging platforms. This is powered by capabilities like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and a unified agent desktop that enable Globe frontliners to assist customers efficiently.

Globe also built a Facebook Messenger bot called Gie of Globe to communicate with its large customer base in a more personalized way. Gie of Globe is a personalization of a digital-savvy Filipina designed to be highly relatable and smart enough to know when a customer service experience needed an additional human touch. Meanwhile, Globe Platinum customers have exclusive access to Thea, a virtual concierge that provides assistance for day-to-day requests on reservations, bookings, events, and other services.

The company also continues to partner with world-class content providers with offers that cater to key customer passion points in video, games and electronic sports (eSports), music, e-commerce, as well as life and productivity services.

Globe offers both affordable and top-of-the-line smartphones from popular device makers like Apple, Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi, and Oppo to speed up the adoption of LTE handsets. Matching these devices are value-for-money data prepaid promos such as GoWATCH & PLAY, and customizable postpaid plans like ThePLAN, which allows its customers to rightsize their plan based on their data and content needs. These efforts have enabled Globe to become one of the fastest-growing and best-performing telecommunications in the world.

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