1. AFRICA STRATEGYIN TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY TEAM 9 – GREENWICH COHORT Thu Ha LeAlmudena Jimenez CruzStephano BosmanClarisse HerbreteauNabila LarakiJacob Parackal
2. AFRICA STRATEGY IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY Macro environment Political, economic, social, technological, environmental, legal Competitors Industry environment The organization Markets
3. P Political factors: Many African countries are just out of the civil war. Corrupt previous governments have left behind them disorderly regulatory regimes. Governments tend to intervene in the industry. E Economic: factors: 6% growth rate predicted in the sector for the year 2011 in Africa. Very fertile market, with a significant increase in consumption of new technologies. Sensitive economical disparity depending on the regions of the continent Tremendous investment in the sector since 2007. S Socio-cultural factors: Women in sub-Saharan African countries contribute over 40% of the economic activity of most nations. The literacy of women is low. Increase in the use of mobile phones. L Legal factors: Unified licensing introduced in 2006. Continuing liberalization of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). Privatization of national telecommunications services in the region is continuing with significant premiums over reserve prices being paid. MACRO ENVIRONMENT OF AFRICA T Technological factors: 3G mobile services Expansion of GSM networks Upgrades in data transmissions due to rapid growth of ADSL and wireless broadband services. E Environmental factors: Stress on saving energy due to high energy consumption in the industry. New technologies for energy saving network towers and grids.
13. 1. Virgin Mobile Joint venture with Cell C in South Africa since 2006 Cell C is 100% owned by 3C Telecommunications Virgin’s marketing know-how Opportunities and colonial ties Try-out of emerging market Africa strategy
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16. Introduction of “Mobi cash “ the first money transfer and payment in MoroccoIntensive marketing campaigns and promotions offers Africa strategy
17. 3. airtel Operates in 16 African Countries. Mode of entry: Acquisition Focus: Rebranding, improved network coverage, excellent customer care and range of products to chose from. CAPEX: Expand with lower capex and discussion with the government for utilizing USO fund for network. Partners: Looking for strategic partners and setting up of base in Nairobi. Telecom Population: Increase minutes of usage from 50-60 minutes to 250 minutes and increase the net density. Make Phone the mobile laptop for the common man in Africa. Africa strategy
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19. MORE CUSTOMERS: focus on private customers and business sector. Better services and stable profit.Africa strategy
20. 5. vodafone Operates in 9 countries with high market shares: Egypt (44.35%); DCR (49%); Kenya (73%); Lesotho (80%); Mozambique (40%); South Africa (59%); Tanzania (46%), Ghana (17%), Libya (15%) Market entry mode: acquisition (Telecom Egypt 1998, Safaricom Kenya 2000, Ghana Telecommunications 2008); joint venture with Telkkom and Venfin in South Africa => Vodacom 1993; non-equity partnership agreement with AlmadarAljadid Libya 2010. Shift towards multi-media and high-end data services, . Focusing on the business segment through including IT Services within its portfolio. Africa strategy
21. 6. orange Implemented in 15 African countries, primarily focused on the French-speaking areas of North and West Africa, and has then expanded its operations to the English- speaking region of Africa and to other more rural areas. Development and modernization of services through “3G network”. Offer low-cost handsets In Kenya, launched “One Kenyan Shilling per MB” tariff to become the most affordable internet bundle Launch of “Orange Money” online payment services Africa strategy
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24. Wages are low; many workers speak English, French along with the enormous number of the available workforce.
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26. AFRICA EXPANSION STRATEGY Virgin FDI Vodafone Vivendi Acquisition Orange Etisalat License Airtel Joint-venture Per capita income High (>$4,000 ) Medium ($1,000-4,000) Low (<$1,000)
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28. Brand name: While others operates under its own brand name in Africa, Vodafone operates under name of its subsidiariesin some African countries e.g. Safaricom in Kenya, Vodacom in South Africa, AlmadarAljadid in Libya
29. Geographic expansion: Virgin only operates in South Africa, Vivendi operates in 4 Northwest African countries, others expand to operate in most areas of Africa.
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31. Possible benefits and problems of current strategy BENEFITS • Integrate into an existing business that already knows the culture and how the country does business • Able to use partners’ network to offer its customers a range of service, which utilize ‘home’ network capabilities as well as extended coverage within Africa • Enable to meet their needs for unified communications, centralized customer care and services using local network. • Lower cost of operation • Benefiting from lower roaming charges • Powerful brand association PROBLEMS • Cultural, administrative, geographical and economical distances (CAGE framework) • Increase in cost of integrating and management • Decreased corporate performance and services • Potentially lowered industry innovation • Suppression of competing businesses • Decline in equity pricing and investment value • Conflict for control and decision-making between Parent company & subsidiary • Governments’ support could decline (E.g: Vivendi and Morocan government)
32. REFERENCES Airtel http://www.airtel.com/wps/wcm/connect/airtel.in/airtel.in/Home [Accessed 5 March 2011] Etisalat http://www.etisalat.ae/index.jsp[Accessed 3 March 2011] http://www.ameinfo.com/137846.html[Accessed 3 March 2011] http://www.bi-me.com/main.php?id=25953&t=1&c=33&cg=4&mset=[Accessed 3 March 2011] http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/en/issue-no-254/money/uaes-etisalat-buys-5/en[Accessed 3 March 2011] http://www.arabianbusiness.com/etisalat-considers-africa-investments-198228.html[Accessed 3 March 2011] International Telecommuncations Union http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/world/world.html [Accessed 15 March 2011] GDP http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?t=0&v=66&l=en [Accessed 6 March 2011] National Income per capital http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.PP.CD [Accessed 12 March 2011] Orange http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=38751:orange-outlines-strategy-for-africa[Accessed 6 March 2011] http://euroafrica-ict.org/wp-content/plugins/alcyonis-event-agenda//files/Orange_development_strategy_in_Africa.pdf[Accessed 6 March 2011] http://hbr.org/product/orange-cameroon-a-global-telecommunications-compan/an/BAB136-PDF-ENG[Accessed 6 March 2011] http://www.telecompaper.com/commentary/france-telecom-sets-tough-goal-to-double-emerging-markets-revenue[Accessed 6 March 2011] Vodafone http://enterprise.vodafone.com/discover_global_enterprise/global_reach/ [Accessed 3 March 2011] http://www.safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=1025 [Accessed 3 March 2011] http://allafrica.com/stories/201002161110.html [Accessed 3 March 2011] http://www.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/ [Accessed 3 March 2011] Vivendi http://www.vivendi.com/vivendi/Maroc-Telecom,953#Network [Accessed 3 March 2011] Virgin http://www.virginmobile.co.za/ [Accessed 3 March 2011]
38. appendix 2 - POTTER’S FIVE FORCES MODEL The most attractive industry is one in which barriers are low which means that few can hardly enter in the market and non-performing firms can exit easily. Threat of new entrants: LOW. At first glance, it might look like the more profitable the industry is, the more attractive it will be to new competitors; although the attractiveness of the industry is depend on other factors: The capital required to set up this kind of industry in Africa, where the infrastructure is obsolete , is very high. The access to distribution is also another big barrier taking in consideration that getting telecom licenses is not easy. Customer loyalty in this kind of industry is quite high so, that is a factor that could motivate strong-branded companies to establish themselves in Africa. Many African governments provide subsidies to home-companies, which made even harder playing in this industry. Threat of substitute products or services: LOW / MODERATE. Recently it has come out the threat of new substitutes: the voice over IP (VoIP), which is a way to transmit voice conversations over a data network using IP, and the Internet telephony (or “peer-to-peer” telephony), which allows voice calls to be made between PCs over the public Internet using IP. However, at the moment, this threat is reasonable moderate. The quality of the sound is not as better as it could be with a regular call. Although some people that usually call over long distances can instead of picking up a phone go to a computer and call through that but it is not because it is more convenient, it is because just the high price of a long-distance call. The low costs of computer calling could potentially take over most long distance calling. The more local calls and business calls would be more secure for the mobile market, although cell phones with the ability to use the internet to make calls are being made available and will soon take a considerable market share of calls made. Bargaining power of consumers: LOW. The threat of buyers in this industry can be considered fairly low. The individual buyer has no impact on the price of the products offered. Africa market size is huge. While in United Stated and Europe the market has achieved their maximum and they are sutured, in Africa the market is experimented the fastest growing at the moment and it is expected to continuously increasing. Telephone and data services do not vary much, regardless of which companies are selling them. For the most part, basic services are treated as a commodity. Buyers are not usually tough, however, customers seeking low prices from companies that offer reliable service. The telecom industry is expected to always increase. The technology could be improved, change to new system that force companies to be constantly undated but it is not expected to be abandoned.
39. Bargaining power of suppliers: HIGH. The suppliers in this industry are those who provide the broadband switching equipment, fiber-optic cables, mobile handsets and billing software, but also, managers and engineers. We can say that supplier’s power in some aspects of this industry is high. There are few dominant suppliers taking in consideration the limited pool of talented managers and engineers, especially those well versed in the latest technologies that place companies in a weak position in terms of hiring and salaries. The brand of the supplier is very strong. You can think in the case of a highly-demanded fashionable phone (ex. I-phone) that is only offered by a company that have sign a contract of exclusivity with Apple. Just for that exclusive right to be the i-phone provider, the company will increased the number of customers who want to have an i-phone. Their role in the quality of the service is also very strong. If a Company have a signal service that does not provide a good reception in a certain area, the customers who live there will switch for another company who provide better reception. As we saw before, in the case, for example, the phones supplier, is very easy to find a new customer, above all, when the product or service provide for the supplier is so demanded. Competitive rivalry within an Industry: HIGH In the telecom industry, technological advances are crucial to have a competitive advantage in the market. Companies that are successful with introducing new technology are able to charge higher prices and achieve higher profits, until competitors imitate them. Rivalry will be more intense if there are equally size competitors, but in almost all African countries we find a clear market leader firm which dominated the market share. There are a few numbers of large firms worldwide that competes for the market share; this lowers the threat of rivalry. The firms that are in the business, however, fight to increase their market share and that increase the threat. The Industries that have a high fixed cost encourages competitor to manufacture at full capacity by cutting prices if needed. In this field, companies apply the vertical integration which is a strategy to reduce a business' own cost and thereby intensify pressure on its rival. Is not very hard to switch to another company, the rivalry among companies here is also high. Due to all companies which play in this industry play with huge amount of capital and pursue aggressive growth strategies, the barriers to leaving the industry are very high and competitors tend to exhibit greater rivalry. Accordingly, we can affirm that the telecom industry in Africa is very attractive.
With Airtel’sOnLine Pay, customers are able to transact mobile money using their Airtel Money accounts.- Launched a customer relationship management solution named Airtel Treasure Hunt in Niger, Uganda, Zambia and Congo. The innovation known as Dynamic Pricing Service gives Airtel the ability to price Voice and Data services dynamically based on location, cell load, time of day, subscriber type and/or subscriber activity.
EXPANSIONSTRATEGY: BE AVAILABLE IN MORE COUNTRIES AND TO MORE CUSTOMERS.MORE COUNTRIES: It developed a long-term strategy that would maintain the rate of growth, revenues and profit margins for its stakeholders by diversifying its source of income REGIONAL and INTERNATIONAL markets. The INTERNATIONAL market strategy consist of betting on high population markets with low penetration.MORE CUSTOMERS: Its subscriptions comes not only private customer but also customer of the business sector of small and mid-sized businesses.Going to markets with enough room for growth offering high quality services and NOT BEING NECESSARILY ON LEADER POSITION in the respective market = continuous growing and stability.
Vodacom increased its stake in Vodacom Group by acquired additional 30% stake in 2005 and 2009 which gives it 65% stake of Vodacom. Vodafone operates in Lesotho, Tanzania, DR of Congo, Mozambique through Vodacom. In Egypt, Kenya and South Africa, Vodafone launched “ultra-low cost handsets”In Kenya and South Africa, lauched M-PESA, a payment solution. It unveiled the cheapest SMS tariffs in the Kenya’s telephony market.
We use income per capita by countries and investment capital to figure out if there is any link between them in the expansion strategy of 6 telecom companies. We assume that Joint-venture will require less amount of investment than buying license to operate, whereas acquisition will require highest investment.From the graph, we can see that Airtel and Vivendi have built its presence in Africa through acquisition in all destinations, whereas, Vodafone, Orange and Etisalat have a range of different strategies to enter different markets. Virgin has operated in only 1 African country through Joint-venture.
Sub-Saharan countries tend to be more open to foreign equity ownership than those in other regions, where no countries except Sierra Leone and Sudan have restrictions on foreign equity ownership. On the other hand, countries such as Angola, Tanzania,and Uganda have more restrictions on foreign ownership in banking, insurance, and telecommunications than do most other countries. In Ethiopia these industries are completely closed to foreign capital participation. Indeed, Ethiopia is one of the most restricted countries measured by IAB, with foreign equity limits in most of its service sectors.
VIVENDI:Maroc Telecom has launched recently mobile contracts under the name of universal music “forfaits universal music” to encourage young Moroccan vivid with music to download music tunes and videos directly from Universal Music Productions to their mobiles. However, all Moroccans are accustomed to get music illegally , and such methods of encouragement will not lead to success since many Moroccans come from the middle class society.=> ISSUES: Intense use of piracy in Africa , and especially with its subsidiary Maroc Telecom impacts on the profitability of mobile internet services. Tough regulatory constraints from the Moroccan government regarding promotional offers since they are partly associated to events like religious aids and the new years celebration, and also costly tarriffs from all operators in Morocco (Maroc Telecom, Meditel, Wana )