By Azer N. Parrocha
MANILA, Dec. 10 (PNA) — Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc. (Globe) on Wednesday said that it has sustained its customer growth momentum during the first nine months this year, with total customer base at 45.4 million, 18 percent more than the 38.4 million a year ago.
In a statement, the telco said that the increased customer base was propped up by strong acquisitions in both the mobile and broadband businesses.
Globe President and chief executive Ernest Cu said that the figure was a result of the company’s solid success over the past several years in attracting customers, which reflected the mobile operator’s ability to lead the pack in revenue expansion.
“Our growth has been driven by our business strategy of providing our customers with products and services most relevant to them,” Cu said.
“We will continue with our approach of creating a brand that appeals to our customers’ digital lifestyle and providing superior customer experience,” he added.
Globe’s robust customer acquisition maintained core net profit during the period to Php 11.6 billion, up 22 percent from a year earlier as revenues reached Php 72.7 billion, an eight percent increase from a year earlier.
Over the past two years, Globe customer acquisition growth has been running in double-digits, leading the company to post high single- digit growth in revenue versus low single-digit or even flattish growth of the industry.
In 2013, Globe consolidated revenues rose nine percent as customer acquisition grew 16 percent to 40.5 million. In the year prior, revenues expanded six percent, helped by an 11 percent jump in customer base.
Its total gross acquisitions in the first nine months of the year stood at 27.6 million, 25 percent higher year-on-year, driven by record-level acquisitions registered in the first half of the year.
Coming from the preceding quarter’s all-time high of 9.6 million customers, gross additions for the third quarter slowed to 8.9 million.
Churn rates for the third quarter were higher, owing to the churn of non-paying subscribers registered in the system primarily for the Free Facebook promotion in the first four months of the year.
Despite the higher churn rates, net incremental subscribers improved to 4.4 million for the first three quarters of this year, a solid 29 percent higher than the 2013 level of 3.4 million net additions.
As for Globe Prepaid gross acquisitions in the January to September period, it grew to 11.6 million or a 23 percent surge when compared to gross acquisitions of 9.4 million a year earlier.
Globe’s broadband business is also steadily increasing its market share, providing support for robust revenues generated in the first nine months of the year.
Broadband customer base at the end of September surged 36 percent to over 2.5 million versus over 1.8 million a year earlier, courtesy of the robust uptake in both wired solutions and wireless services.
While its Tattoo Mobile Broadband maintained its brand leadership in the segment as it registered a solid 42 percent growth in customer base, while Tattoo Home reported an 11 percent increase in the number of customers after the first nine months of the year.
The fixed line data segment, meanwhile, drew support from the growth in domestic and internet services, sustained circuit base expansion, strong demand for data connectivity and the relevance of the company’s innovative products and services that cater to the needs of its corporate clients such as sales and marketing, inter-company communications, database management and data storage.
Furthermore, Globe said that the expansion of the local IT Enabled Services industry, which includes call centers and business outsourcing companies, also helped drive the growth of the corporate data business. (PNA)