By Tom Noda
Instead of shunning it, Globe Telecom is wholeheartedly embracing the proliferation of free messaging apps such as Line, WeChat, Viber, and KakaoTalk, and even expects it to deliver more revenues to the company.
On Friday, Aug. 23, the Ayala-led company announced its latest unlimited call and SMS products — the Prepaid GoUnli30 and the UnliChat25 — bundled with free messaging apps from major over-the-top (OTT) messaging services players.
According to Globe?s senior advisor for consumer business Peter Bithos, Globe is the first telecom company in the world to offer all major global OTT messaging services for free as part of its core call and text bundle.
Bithos made the announcement at the newly opened Globe tower within Bonifacio Global City, now occupied by 4,000 Globe employees.
The Prepaid GoUnli30 is a P30 ($.70) bundled prepaid offer which provides subscribers with unlimited texts to all networks, unlimited calls to Globe and M users, and unlimited access to instant messaging and chat applications Viber, Facebook Messenger, KakaoTalk, and major OTT players without the need for Wi-Fi or additional data charges.
The UnliChat25, meanwhile, offers uninterrupted use of messaging apps for P25 or $.6 for one day.
?We expect significant higher growth market share with UnliChat25 and GoUnli30 and there would be a lot more collaboration in the future,? Bithos said, noting all of its bundled messaging apps are being used by more or less a billion people worldwide.
?Why should a telco dictate what apps you want to use? For Globe it is all about customer choice,? Bithos said.
The executive said Viber now has 200 million users around the world, Facebook Messenger with 60 million, KakaoTalk with 90 million, and about 650 million more users from other major OTT players.
