Telstra & Telkom Indonesia formed JV NAS (network application services)

Taken from Total Telecom's article : Telstra, Telkom Indonesia form enterprise JV
By Nick Wood, Total Telecom
Friday 29 August 2014

Telstra and Telkom Indonesia on Friday formed a joint venture that will provide network application services (NAS) for Indonesia-based enterprises and Australian companies operating in Indonesia.

NAS monitors applications and services deployed on an enterprise network in order to improve their performance and reliability, and safeguard corporate data. The aim is to identify and fix problems, thus freeing up the enterprise to focus on their core business and customers.

The JV will offer an integrated end-to-end service, unique in the Indonesian market, by enabling NAS to be bundled with Telkom's connectivity and sold through Telkom Indonesia and Telstra's enterprise sales teams.

"We believe the JV NAS will grow significantly not only because of the partnership with Telstra, but also considering Telkom's capabilities in network and data centre, as well as Telkom's strong position in the enterprise market segment," said Arief Yahya, CEO of Telkom Indonesia.

Global Internet Usage

Taken from Forbes article : Giant Chart - Global Internet Usage By The Numbers

In 2000, there were a mere 394 million Internet users scattered across the world. Fast forward to 2014 and that number has grown to 2.923  million – that’s nearly 40% of all people on Earth. 

The majority of these can be found in East Asia (756 million or 41%), followed by Europe (26%) and North America (14%).

In North America, the Internet is dominated by real-time entertainment, which accounts for 59 percent of peak period aggregate traffic. In 2013, 31.6 percent of this alone was caused by Netflix.

South Koreans are able to enjoy that sort of online entertainment most comfortably – they have the fasted average connection coming in at a blistering 23.6 Mbps.

Almost one third of time spent on app is Gaming category (32%)  followed by Social Networks (28%)

PayPal initiatives across remote and in-store payments

Taken from The Juniper Research Blog: PayPalOneTouch provides further fillip to mobile shopping

PayPal unveiled an app payment feature, which enables uses to pay via a single touch to the handset screen. The "OneTouch" has been enabled using technology from Braintree, which parent company eBay acquired in September 2013 for around $800 million.

The feature will also be integrated into mobile apps which support PayPal. In the first instance that the consumer makes a payment for a product using one of these apps, he or she will be redirected to the PayPal app for authorization. For subsequent purchases, the one touch feature kicks in and purchases can be made within the merchant app.

PayPal is already one of the behemoths of mobile payments: in 2013, it was responsible for around $27 billion in mobile and tablet transactions, representing 15% of global payments by transaction value, and the introduction of this feature on a commercial basis is likely to give those volumes a further boost.

Furthermore, not content with being a big fish in the online payments space, PayPal updated its Windows Phone app to enable in-store payments, to accompany the iOS and Android apps which have had this facility since 2012. Last autumn, it also unveiled an in-store payment mechanism, enabled by a combination of BLE and Wi-Fi. The PayPal Beacon runs on its own Wi-Fi and plugs into an outlet at a retailer with a compatible POS system. When a consumer who (a) has the PayPal app and (b) has opted in to the ability for retailers to use Beacon enters a store, the technology triggers a vibration or sound to denote a successful check-in; the handset owner’s photograph appears on the screen of the merchant POS system so that the customer can be greeted by name.

PayPal have said that if a consumer enters a store and either does not wish to check in or ignores the check in request, no information will be transmitted. The customer set up preferences as to where they can be automatically checked in and then automatically charged when collecting goods or when they leave; payment requires only a verbal confirmation.

In short, PayPal continues to be a very busy bee across remote and in-store payments. Its competitors will have to up their games to keep up.

Gartner’s Digital Business Development Path

Taken from Forbes article "Where are you on the Digital Business Development Path?"

The Digital Business Development Path examines six different business era models from before the Web to after the Nexus of Forces (social, mobile, cloud, information) to help organizations understand their current state and assist CIOs in making the case for digital business.

Gartner’s Digital Business Development Path

Gartner predicts that by 2020, 75% of business will be digital businesses or preparing to become one. However, a Gartner digital business survey showed that only 22% of respondents defined themselves as already being a digital business. Most organizations, or 41%, see themselves as a digital marketing business, and 22% of companies remain Web businesses.

Where is your organization today and where do you want it to be ?

Ooredoo heralds commercial launch in Myanmar

By Mary Lennighan, Total Telecom
Friday 15 August 2014

Qatari operator enables users to top up from as little as €0.76 (Rp 11,879) as its mobile services go live.

Ooredoo announced the official launch of mobile services in Myanmar, introducing a number of low-cost top-up and Internet access options.

An Ooredoo SIM card costs 1,500 kyats (€1.13 , Rp 13,422) and customers are able to top up in amounts as low as MMK1,000 (€0.76, Rp 11,879). Top-up vouchers are available at 30,000 locations in Myanmar, Ooredoo said.

It is also offering a series of starter plans to help customers get online.

Its mobile Internet bundles start at MMK500 (€0.38, Rp 5,940 ) per day and include what it describes as "a Facebook bonus", which presumably gives users free or lower-priced access to Facebook.

The telco also offers Chat Packs at MMK100 (€0.08, Rp 1,250 ) per day, which enable customers to "chat online non-stop".

The company is also talking up the availability of the Samsung Galaxy V, which it is offering for a promotional price with a bundle of voice minutes, SMS and data.

Indonesia The Leading Country for Digital Ad Spending Growth

According to eMarketer, investments in digital advertising in Asia-Pacific are set to rise 17.9% to total $41.07 billion this year. The region will boast the second-biggest share of digital ad spending worldwide, trailing only North America, at 29.3% vs. 38.8%.

With investments in online and mobile advertising totaling $18.96 billion this year, China will maintain the largest share of the region’s digital ad market (46.2%) followed by Japan and Australia.

Indonesia will be the leading country for digital ad spending growth by a long shot, at a whopping 75.0% this year, compared with 30.0% in second-place India. This growth will pay off to surpass India in 2017 and near South Korea by 2018.