New integrated True digital service allows ads at its Wi-Fi hotspots

Egg (Enable Growth to the Great) Digital will provide services including online marketing with USSD (unstructured supplementary service data) technology, iOTalk (intelligent organisation talk), a private/community chat platform and WiFi Play, which will use True’s 120,000 Wi-Fi hotspots as advertising channels.
USSD is a protocol that allows mobile phones to communicate with the telecom’s computers.
Sunsert Samaisut, chief commercial officer of True Corporation, who oversees Egg Digital, said the new business line integrated two existing business lines, the company’s digital-media and online solutions.
Egg Digital is expected to bring in Bt500 million in revenue by the end of this year, which is a 25-per-cent increase on last year’s combined revenue of the two integrated solutions. The enhanced growth will be driven by the new WiFi Play service.
Sunsert said WiFi Play would broadcast 15-second adverts to people who access True Wi-Fi hotspots. Those who want to use the Wi-Fi service free of charge have to watch the ads.
“This is the newest service that will allow us to add value to our Wi-Fi hotspots. Egg Digital will charge advertisers according to the ads display while True Wifi also have more revenue from more [free Wi-Fi] access from the advertisers as well,” SansertSunsert said.
By the end of this year, it aims to have Bt80 million of revenue from the new WiFi Play service alone.
“We can customise ads according to where the hotspots are located, and also can personalise ads according to potential targets of particular advertisers efficiently. The prices of the adverts will depend on these requirements,” he said.
Currently, 3 million people access True Wi-Fi per day, mostly via mobile devices. These are True customers only. However, he said WiFi Play should at least double the number of True Wi-Fi users within the next 12 months, since anyone now can use the service, free of charge, to log on to the Internet for half an hour, even if they do not have a True account.
“We already have five or six advertisers for this service. We only distribute the ads through the True Wi-Fi channel, we do not provide ad development, so advertisers need to have their own content. Our prices will be about 6-7 per cent lower than the online ads in the market.”
Egg Digital also provides digital services for small and medium-sized enterprises such as SME Ready Web, SME Fast Media, and SME Digital Marketing with USSD. All three services are designed to help SMEs do business online and provide them with the same online marketing tools as large corporates have at low cost.
“By the end of this year, Egg Digital is expected to contribute Bt500 million to True Digital Content and Media, and Bt700 million next year. For this year, True Digital Content and Media is expected to see Bt2 billion in revenue,” Sunsert said.