BAGUIO CITY – To further bolster the growth of its mobile data business, Philippine wireless services leader Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) is poised to introduce a set of data bundles that will enable users to view and enjoy mobile videos on their mobile phones at affordable rates.
Through these new data bundles, Smart Prepaid and Postpaid subscribers can watch YouTube videos, as well as content from Dailymotion, Vimeo and Viewstream, on their mobile phones for as low as Php5.
“It’s no secret that Filipinos love viewing online videos in platforms like YouTube, where many local talents have been discovered. Smart’s groundbreaking online video offer for YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and Viewstream reinforces our campaign to provide more affordable access to the content our subscribers love,” said Charles A. Lim, EVP and Wireless Consumer Division Head at Smart.
“Smart is committed to provide users with the best content and entertainment services available at great value so that they can enjoy videos on their mobile devices anytime, anywhere,” Lim added.
“We want to make sure we are making YouTube as enjoyable as possible for our growing base of mobile users in the Philippines. By working with Smart to create a more affordable way for people to watch videos on mobile we hope Filipinos will be able to enjoy a better YouTube experience across devices, either at home or on the go,” said Rajan Anandan, Vice President and Managing Director, Google Southeast Asia and India.
“In addition to this new offering from Smart, Filipinos can also enjoy a smooth, buffer-free version of YouTube by using the new offline feature we introduced in the Philippines last December.”
This new Smart offering presents unique opportunities to a young but growing Internet market in the Philippines that consumes various types of multimedia content with their mobile devices.
According to a report by Ericsson Consumer Lab in 2014, viewing via video-streaming services such as YouTube is set to overtake video viewing via TV channels around the world this year, with the trend being driven by the younger subset of the market.
“We’re seeing more of our users viewing videos on their mobile devices, and this has contributed in the rapid increase of mobile data traffic within our network over the past year,” Lim said. In fact, according to a Cisco report, mobile video is predicted to generate more than 69% of mobile data traffic by 2019.
In anticipation of further surge in data usage brought by increasing mobile video consumption, Lim said the PLDT Group is planning to spend another P39 billion in capital expenditures in 2015.
The new online video data bundles will help bolster Smart’s mobile data business this year, as it capped 2014 with a stellar performance of P8.1 billion in revenues, or a 63-percent jump from the P5 billion revenues recorded in 2013.
This is just the latest in Smart’s bid to provide the Internet for all of its subscribers’ needs, enabling them to get access to the content that they want by offering a fast, fun, and worry-free Internet experience each and every time.
Smart will be announcing its video data bundles in attractive price points for all prepaid, postpaid and broadband users very soon.
By Dexter A. See
