boosts data growth with Facebook

Facebook has become a key vehicle for driving data growth. Leveraging on our partnership with the company, ’s companies in Asia have worked systematically to get new data users. dtac can boast an 91 per cent mobile internet revenue growth from 2011 to 2012.

Mobile phones are the main device on which customer in Asia access the Internet. Through initiatives like Mobile Internet in Asia (MIA), Telenor Digital Services is working to bring mobile internet and internet services to people in this region. A key driver in this work is to partner with other service providers, such as Facebook, , Deezer, NHN, Twitter and Wikimedia. “It is very important for Telenor to cooperate with big global players like these to get people online and make them discover the benefits of mobile internet,” comments Rolv-Erik Spilling, Executive Vice President and Head of Digital Services. Facebook (FB) provides clear value to more than one billion users. Given its unique position in terms of size, reach and pull, Facebook has become an important partner for Telenor. Collaboration started in 2011 and the results have not been long in coming. Over the past year, Telenor and our BUs in Asia in particular increased the number of activities with the company, whose biggest growth potential is on mobile. “Facebook is an extremely popular application in all the markets in which Telenor operates. In Asia, Facebook is often the only reason for our customers to start using mobile data. When we look at what drives Telenor's revenues, it is primarily growth in mobile data. Facebook is what gets people online,” says Petter Lee-Johannessen, Telenor’s Global Partnership Manager for Facebook.

Leveraging the Facebook partnership in Thailand

With 18 million Facebook users, Thailand ranks number 14 on the list of countries with the highest numbers of FB users. According to the latest updates, dtac had 5,29 million customers accessing Facebook on their mobile in December 2012. This equals a 2.5 times higher user growth compared to the beginning of the year. dtac has around 40 per cent of the Facebook mobile users in their network, which is far beyond fair share in the Thai market. “Figures show there is a correlation between Facebook uptake and revenue growth. dtac is the star example when it comes to leveraging the Facebook partnership, boasting more than 91 per cent mobile internet revenue growth from fourth quarter 2011 to the same quarter in 2012. This was a significant contributor to revenue growth for dtac last year,” Lee- Johannessen comments.

Offering a number of Facebook products

“We are currently working on several products with Facebook in our markets, offering customers new products such as mobile payment, Facebook SMS integration, Facebook USSD (FB Text), ad clusters and Facebook Java app in local languages. Our best experiences are with day/week packages of Facebook in dtac, the combination of FB Zero and Opera Mini from DiGi, USSD in Uninor and to push the Java app in in Bangladesh to non-data users,” Lee-Johannessen concludes.

Telenor Group is one of the world's major mobile operators. We keep our customers connected in our markets across Scandinavia and Asia. Our more than 30,000 employees are committed to responsible business conduct and being our customers' favourite partner in digital life. Connecting the world has been Telenor's domain for more than 160 years, and we are driven by a singular vision: to empower societies.

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