Ideas 2011
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Media
TV 2.0: Young China takes TV viewing online
By Jenny Ng, principal, Max Parry, manager, and Rogelio Bakels, Value Partners Hong Kong December 2011Last year, more minutes of TV were viewed in China than in any other nation on the planet and even the TV ad¬vertising market rebounded. A new study by Value Partners suggests that shifts in viewing behaviour from young Chine¬se represent a serious threat to the long-term health of the cable TV sector in China, and form a corresponding opportunity for online media players.
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Telecommunications
mCommerce in China: customer insights from a market survey
By Tiger Shan, principal, and Jeff Huang, Value Partners Beijing September 2011With the arrival of the 3G era, mobile commerce (mCommerce) offers substantial market potential and customer benefits. This study is a comprehensive market survey of smartphone users in mainland China, with the aim of delivering insights into the key success factors of mCommerce. The survey analyses customer behaviour trends and involved 12 focus groups in 5 cities, with a total of 1,200 smartphone users being interviewed from ages 18 to 45.
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Financial institutions
Destination India: an attractive opportunity for foreign banks
October 2011The Indian economy is largely driven by private consumption and the services sector. The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indian banks offers limited options for the expansion of foreign banks in India as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) favours consolidation within Indian banks rather than acquisition by foreign institutions. Foreign banks in India are currently governed by strict regulations and have adopted different types of market entry strategies. Foreign banks have a NBFC presence in India to overcome branch-opening limitations and to augment their network in semi-urban and rural areas. In the future the use of a wholly-owned subsidiary (WOS) may enable foreign banks to overcome some of the existing restrictions on branch expansion and on obtaining more efficient sources of funds. A conclusive analysis will however only be possible following the publication by RBI of its new regulations on the presence of foreign banks in India. The product portfolio of the smaller foreign banks in India will be largely constrained by the limited branch network policy. These banks should focus on providing corporate banking services, where they could actively target the companies from their native countries with a presence in India, as well as SMEs in large, export-oriented clusters. Corporate banking could be further enhanced through the provision of services such as treasury, cash management, corporate finance advisory, loan syndication and project finance services. There are some niche opportunities like NRI (non-resident Indian) services and retail finance for smaller banks in the retail segment. These ones will however need to heavily leverage partnerships with local banks and other companies with strong distribution networks aiming at effectively targeting retail customers.
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Telecommunications
Chinese telecommunications operators: accelerating online strategy to seize the internet blue ocean
By Tiger Shan, principal, Jane Hou, manager, and Roy Zhang, Value Partners Beijing August 2011The rapid development of the internet and e-commerce is changing telecom users' preferences for contact channel access. Online channels have become enormously popular due to the relatively low set-up cost, wide geographic coverage, lack of time constraints, and rapid information dissemination. Overseas operators' experiences have shown that online channels are a crucial tool for achieving channel synergies, with great potential for lowering service cost, improving user experiences and elevating overall sales channel capability. Currently, both internal and external conditions for the online channel development in China are ripe. After a large-scale expansion of physical channels followed by intensified competition, operators are now starting to look at the online blue ocean by accelerating online channel development as well as launching distinctive online strategies. However, compared to the leading operators abroad, Chinese players’ online channels are still in their infancy. There is significant room for improvement in such aspects as information communication, service and marketing capability development, user experience and business contributions.
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Newsletter
Power up
April 2011Anyone who's ever played Pac Man, Bubble Bobble or Mario Bros − and there are millions of such people all over the world − knows what a power-up is: an extra advantage. Power-ups are objects, abilities and qualities that let you exceed various levels of play, and win or extend the game. Being lucky's not enough to get a power−up, though. You have to be good from the very start, brave, and determined − in a word, skilled. And if you are, you're rewarded. With this in mind, we've called the first edition of the 2011 Value Partners newsletter Power−up. It introduces companies and sectors that, even during the recent economic crisis, focused on their skills and capabilities, and then emerged with an advantage that looks hopeful for the start of the decade.
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Telecommunications
Barcelona 2011 - the dog days are over (but what’s next?)
By Emmanuel Durou, Senior Manager at Value Partners Dubai, and Valerio Fallucca, Principal March 2011As the global telecoms industry leaves its period of recovery behind and swings back into innovation mode with full force, key players discussed the latest trends in operating systems, new technologies, apps and other value added services. Views on the 2011 Mobile World Congress.
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Newsletter
Capturing the Micropayments Opportunity
January 2011“Micropayments” is one of the key areas of development for the payment industry, with a potential value estimated at over €34bn by 2015 in Europe. From a value of approximately €6.4bn in 2010 the sector is expected to grow to €14.5bn, realising around half of its potential. In Europe alone micropayments will grow from 6.7bn transactions in 2010 to over 17bn by 2015 resulting from the rapid growth of TV on demand, digital music distribution, mobile applications and gaming communities. “Micropayment”s is a critical business, lying in the converged space between the telecoms, media and financial services industries, that Value Partners has identified as both a key enabler and a potential bottleneck for growth in the digital content distribution business. The fundamental micropayments challenge results from the high transaction cost compared to the value of goods sold. New business models are emerging as new players (e.g. telecoms and ISPs) enter the micropayments space, suggesting an incoming wave of disruptive innovation.