Having posted a 17 per cent fall in fourth-quarter profits, it has unveiled two services designed to open up new revenue streams.
Besides launching an advertising services arm, iMedia, to deliver integrated platforms for advertisers, SingTel made a huge statement of intent online when it unveiled a local lifestyle web portal, inSing.com, through a new subsidiary, SingTel Digital Media.
Its portal features localised content, business and events listings, email and a search function. Given the sites that are already available - Yahoo, SPH’s rednano local search site and online portals including Omy and Stomp - SingTel is muscling in on a very crowded market. SingTel CEO Allen Lew claims the site will offer “differentiation”. but industry observers are sceptical, saying localised listings and user-generated content can only drive the site so far. One source likens SingTel’s latest foray as moving from being “a Goliath to a David in an uncharted territory”.
Ian Loon, head of digital at Starcom Singapore, says that running a content business will require different skills from running a telecoms business. The organisation now needs to become more personal to understand its audience or subscribers, he argues.
Loon points to the business intelligence relating to its services that SingTel should be able to gather through cookies and registrations. However, he adds that much will depend on “how the market might adapt to a walled garden approach for content in this space”.
Meanwhile, iMedia, its revamped advertising services arm, will “definitely address market demand for more integrated solutions,” says Connie Chan, managing director of MEC Singapore.
The service is designed to offer ads across online, mobile and TV. Jeffrey Seah, CEO, Southeast Asia, Starcom MediaVest Group calls it a “natural” development from SingTel’s trial foray into mobile ads in 2007. He says that the service would have “a daily reach higher than traditional ad channels and a CRM database providing more targeted lists than list firms. Clients will no doubt be interested.”
iMedia’s biggest draw will be SingTel’s mobile subscriber base of nearly three million, plus over half a million more on its broadband, wireless broadband and mioTV platforms. However, Bharad Ramesh, deputy leader of Mindshare Singapore, doubts the service is “integrated in a true sense”. He says: “You can’t track a user from the one medium to another. Advertisers are buying on three separate systems and need to buy enough volume to hit everyone.”
Other challenges include a low subscriber base for mioTV and an in-house ad serving platform that is limited for media agencies to track responses, says Ramesh.
Seah underlines that SingTel’s challenge would now be its “sales posture and delivery promise”.
He says, “Any channel that knows its users and is targeted can deliver the right contextual messages. The challenge, as with all options, is the deployment process.”
Got a view?
Email [email protected]
Besides launching an advertising services arm, iMedia, to deliver integrated platforms for advertisers, SingTel made a huge statement of intent online when it unveiled a local lifestyle web portal, inSing.com, through a new subsidiary, SingTel Digital Media.
Its portal features localised content, business and events listings, email and a search function. Given the sites that are already available - Yahoo, SPH’s rednano local search site and online portals including Omy and Stomp - SingTel is muscling in on a very crowded market. SingTel CEO Allen Lew claims the site will offer “differentiation”. but industry observers are sceptical, saying localised listings and user-generated content can only drive the site so far. One source likens SingTel’s latest foray as moving from being “a Goliath to a David in an uncharted territory”.
Ian Loon, head of digital at Starcom Singapore, says that running a content business will require different skills from running a telecoms business. The organisation now needs to become more personal to understand its audience or subscribers, he argues.
Loon points to the business intelligence relating to its services that SingTel should be able to gather through cookies and registrations. However, he adds that much will depend on “how the market might adapt to a walled garden approach for content in this space”.
Meanwhile, iMedia, its revamped advertising services arm, will “definitely address market demand for more integrated solutions,” says Connie Chan, managing director of MEC Singapore.
The service is designed to offer ads across online, mobile and TV. Jeffrey Seah, CEO, Southeast Asia, Starcom MediaVest Group calls it a “natural” development from SingTel’s trial foray into mobile ads in 2007. He says that the service would have “a daily reach higher than traditional ad channels and a CRM database providing more targeted lists than list firms. Clients will no doubt be interested.”
iMedia’s biggest draw will be SingTel’s mobile subscriber base of nearly three million, plus over half a million more on its broadband, wireless broadband and mioTV platforms. However, Bharad Ramesh, deputy leader of Mindshare Singapore, doubts the service is “integrated in a true sense”. He says: “You can’t track a user from the one medium to another. Advertisers are buying on three separate systems and need to buy enough volume to hit everyone.”
Other challenges include a low subscriber base for mioTV and an in-house ad serving platform that is limited for media agencies to track responses, says Ramesh.
Seah underlines that SingTel’s challenge would now be its “sales posture and delivery promise”.
He says, “Any channel that knows its users and is targeted can deliver the right contextual messages. The challenge, as with all options, is the deployment process.”
Got a view?
Email [email protected]
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