XOX wants to stand out from the pack

PETALING JAYA: Despite the mature and saturated telecommunications (telco) market, XOX Bhd is confident expanding its subscriber base with its focus on growth of data usage and Internet Protocol (IP) mobile connection, said its group CEO Ng Kok Heng.
"Malaysia's telco industry is very developed, mobile penetration is very mature and to compete now in the traditional way would be very competitive. Already there are three big telcos plus others, and you have five to six players of which some have come and gone, while some of the smaller mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) have gone already. Still, there are some new players coming into the market," he told SunBiz.
Ng said while MVNOs have low costs because they do not build networks, the challenge is in gaining market share in a market where smartphone penetration is already over 60%.
"We have spent a lot of time understanding the MVNO market. We got listed in 2011 and in the second half of last year we finally felt that we have a grasp of the market and how things are going forward.
"Now with smartphones, one very important thing to have is data. Then you also have tablets and bigger touch screen devices. So, data is going to be the area of growth…imagine a world where everybody is very connected via mobile Internet," he said.
Ng said instead of converting subscribers of other telcos into XOX subscribers, the company aims to provide an additional phone line or phone number to these users who already have smartphones.
"It doesn't matter whether it is on your first phone or second phone. We're talking about every individual whether they are Malaysian or foreigners, anybody, literally by extension the world," he said.
Its latest product, Voopee, is an application that can be downloaded for free and users get a new phone number without having to change their SIM cards, unlike other peer-to-peer applications like Whatsapp, WeChat and other similar products.
With the application, users can communicate for free with contacts who also have Voopee. According to Ng, there are no roaming fees, and call charges for both local and overseas calls to non-Voopee users is a flat rate of 10 sen per minute.
"If you go overseas, you can communicate via this particular phone number and be charged only a local call. If you switch on your Voopee, your charges are still Malaysian even though you are overseas. It is a Malaysian number connected via IP internationally. IP is the biggest and cheapest network in the world. So we ride on this big wave because everybody has it (internet connection or data).
"One thing that is assumed, for us, is that IP will be the future. Very few people can doubt it. It can only get faster and faster, more and more services, more and more reliant on that. With the Voopee, we hope we are able to attract the user base not only for the phone services like voice and SMS, text messaging and stickers, sharing photos and others, we will also introduce other services on this particular platform," he said.
Ng added that there are plans in the pipeline for at least one more product launch this year on top of various improvements to its existing products, in order to grow its subscriber base from 300,000 to at least one million by year-end.
It has also widened its target market from predominantly Chinese youth to the mass market, especially the "young and cool" whom it considers opinion leaders.
Group managing director Datuk Eddie Chai Woon Chet said although it was working on many products and programmes, these were not launched due to timing.
"Voopee is a very powerful application. This can expand globally and it has unlimited growth…you can use anywhere because it is supported by internet, as long as you've got WiFi or 3G. But, quality of the connection cannot be controlled as it is dependent on the internet connection (of the telco).
"That's why timing is important. Most of the world has good internet connection now. If this product was launched three years ago, it would never be successful because the 3G then was weak. Imagine three years ago if you downloaded and tested it, it would not have been clear. It's the timing for us. That's why we waited until now to launch this. It's not just about the product, but the timing too," he added.
Chai insists that 2014, will see XOX becoming the "talk of the town".
"We have a lot of marketing schemes which were in the pipeline for the past three to four years which we will be rolling out this year. Every month you will see a lot of activities surrounding our brand," he said.