Ayala-owned telco Globe will no longer be using the word “Telecom” in its trade name and marketing collaterals as it transitions to a digital solutions provider and veer away from its core telecommunications business.
Yoly Crisanto, chief sustainability officer and SVP for corporate communications at Globe, said the company has expanded its offerings beyond the telco realm after creating and acquiring a few firms in the last couple of years.
“Since we are a group now and no longer just telco business, we are dropping Telecom when we introduce ourselves. Although at the PSE, it is still Globe Telecom Inc which is the trade name of Globe,” Crisanto said in an email message to Newsbytes.PH.
In the social media platform LinkedIn, the company has already discarded “Telecom” from its name and now carries the tag “Globe Group”.
Last year, Globe said it slowly pivoting away from its core telecommunications business to become a digital solutions platform over the next five to 10 years to cater to rapid consumer digital adoption.
Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu said the company is continuing its transformation into a digital solutions group by exploring adjacent business space. It currently offers several diverse high-growth enterprises in healthtech, fintech, adtech, and e-commerce, among others.
“I think Globe, four or five years or maybe even ten years from now, will be a digital platform. This is very similar to what Google has done, where they used their search as a basis to create new businesses. Or what companies like Grab has done where they used their ride-hailing app to create new businesses. We use telco as the platform to create new businesses,” Cu said.
Aside from GCash, other portfolio companies under Globe’s corporate builder 917Ventures include telehealth service platforms KonsultaMD and HealthNow, a digital and mobile marketing solutions firm. It also has adtech company AdSpark, loyalty, and e-commerce solutions provider RUSH, and online grocery shopping platform PureGo.
Also under 917Ventures are online learning platform Edventure, marketplace fanlife, online study-now-pay-later bootcamp KodeGo, A2P messaging platform M360, online seller platform BentaTV, and self-service dashboard iNQUiRO.
Globe said it also continues to scale up its information technology solutions and services through multi-payment platform Electronic Commerce Payments Inc. (ECPay).
Meanwhile, its corporate venture capital arm, Kickstart Ventures, now has $240 million aggregate assets under management focusing on, among others, media, content and advertising, healthtech, and logistics tech.
