Retail consumption - financial services – telecommunications and essential services on digital platforms are estimated to account for 80 percent of the Vietnamese consumer’s wallet. To Masan, the integration of telecom solutions and useful technologies into the ‘Point of Life’ platform will boost consumer benefits by delivering a user-friendly experience and optimal performance.

Therefore, Masan recently acquired 70 percent of Mobicast to mark its official entry into the telecom and digital service sectors.

This is a strategic step of the company to build a complete ecosystem of its own and transform the retail consumer industry. 

Why did Masan decide to launch Reddi as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator?

MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) are wireless communication service providers that do not have their own frequency spectrum allocation or the wireless network infrastructure.

MVNOs partner with traditional Mobile Network Operators (MNO) to use their wireless network infrastructure to provide telecom and data services to consumers.

This is a win-win business model: MNOs realize increased network capacity utilization while MVNOs can leverage existing network infrastructure and benefit from an asset-light business model.

MVNOs are a common business model in the telecom space globally. For example, MVNOs command approximately 20 percent of the UK mobile market.

Masan would need a truly integrated product and service solution as part of its consumer ecosystem to serve its nearly 15 million digital savvy consumers.

Adopting the MVNO model will save investment costs, improve efficient use of resources and infrastructure of telecom enterprises, and facilitate national deployment of service, which are the key advantages of Reddi.

The entry into the telecommunications sector lays the foundation to digitalize Masan’s platforms and build a unified offline-to-online product and service solution, or a ‘Point of Life’ consumer ecosystem.

‘Point of Life’ is the only consumer ecosystem that spans grocery, financial, and digital life.

Reliance Jio: A retail model in India that integrates digital services

The model Masan is building is not a new one but a proven success model of an Indian corporation.

Reliance is India's largest retailer with nearly 11,000 points of sale, 23 distribution centers, and a database with more than 110 million loyal customers.

Reliance ‘entered’ into the digital service and electronics telecommunications sectors by launching Jio Platforms in October 2019.

The company has transformed Jio Platforms into India's largest mobile operator, racing past its competitors thanks to its reasonable pricing, good signal quality, and appealing service plans.

In May 2020, Jio Platforms was valued by many as the fourth-largest Indian company by market capitalization and it currently has about 400 million paying subscribers for services in its ecosystem.

Its ecosystem includes JioTV running online TV, JioMoney offering digital currency and electronic payment, and JioMart operating online stores, among others.

Given government restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 in India in 2020, millions of local people have shifted to virtual platforms for their study, work, medical appointments, or online shopping and payments.

The COVID-19 outbreak has accelerated digitization in a country of more than one billion people and is the opportunity for Jio Platforms to further dominate the mobile market there.

Jio's digital platform provides local people with a full range of essential solutions for their online study, work or shopping.

A connected multi-experience ecosystem for Vietnamese consumers

Masan holds the number-one position when it comes to the scale of modern retail networks, with nearly 2,400 WinMart supermarkets and WinMart+ stores (formerly known as VinMart and VinMart+) nationwide.

Along with its partnership with Lazada in particular and Alibaba in general to develop digital sales channels, Masan is working on remaining blocks to complete its leading and integrated offline-to-online (O2O) retail consumer platform in Vietnam.

In addition, offerings jointly delivered by WinMart, WinMart+, Techcombank, and leading digital sales platforms help improve the savings of Vietnamese consumers and accelerate the modernization of Vietnam's retail industry.

With the latest move of entering into the telecommunications and digital service sectors through its acquisition of Mobicast, Masan strongly believes that its ‘Point of Life’ ecosystem will increase consumer savings compared to traditional ways of spending.

Reddi is expected to focus on young and modern customers in its provision of telecommunications and digital services on a mobile application for personalized experiences.