Miracle in Africa

In 2019, the service turnover of Viettel Mozambique (Movitel) was estimated at US$ 200 million, up 10 times against 2018. The number of Movitel’s subscribers in the country’s towns and cities increased to 20% of its urban population from 12%, contributing 75% to the company’s service turnover growth.

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Movitel's CEO Nguyen Dat

Viettel’s strategy “From the countryside to cities,” which had already brought success to the group in Vietnam and some other foreign markets, did not seem suitable in Mozambique. Movitel built 3,000 BTS (one tenth of the number of BTS in Vietnam) in Mozambique, which is much larger than Vietnam. Due to the large area of the country, it was very difficult for Movitel’s technicians to fix network problems, particularly during natural disasters.

Another difficulty for Movitel was that its rival – Vodacom, which had invested in a modern mobile network in the country before Movitel was founded, dominated the telecom market. For every 10 urban mobile subscribers, eight belonged to Vodacom and only two were Movitel’s. Meanwhile, Vodacom’s earnings tripled Movitel’s.  

According to Chief Executive Officer of Movitel Nguyen Dat, in general African countries were lagging behind Vietnam and other markets in terms of telecommunication infrastructure and services, so Movitel had to craft a specific strategy suitable for the African market. Instead of focusing on the countryside – Viettel’s successful strategy in many markets, Movitel first invested in the country’s cities and towns.

The investment decision eased a lot of the work for Movitel’s engineers and workers as they did not have to build a wide network in remote and difficult terrains. The decision also helped the company make a quick and large profit. As it had to compete fiercely with its rivals, the company focused on providing better services and more attractive promotional packages.

Further, Movitel built a system of stores and transaction points convenient for its customers.

In addition, it raised customers’ trust in its network by successfully fixing all interruption cases in less than 24 hours after the two hurricanes of IDAI and KENNETH. Meanwhile, it took 10-15 days for its rivals like Vodacom and Tmcel to recover their networks. Movitel’s engineers and workers have also developed a number of solutions for its network and management over the past five years.

The very sound strategy and innovations have brought success to Movitel.

Simple business philosophy

Vice Manager of the Product Center of the Viettel Digital Services Corporation (VDS) Nguyen Anh Quan shared that Viettel did not pursue the policy “Burning money,” like its rivals, to lure users when it launched its electronic wallet “Viettel Pay.” Instead, it followed a simple business philosophy: making people understand the benefits of the electronic banking service.

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Vice Manager of the Product Center of the Viettel Digital Services Corporation (VDS) Nguyen Anh Quan

Although ViettelPay had to compete with several electronic banking platforms in Vietnam, it was still successful in 2019. About VND 50 trillion was transacted via ViettelPay per month on average.

According to Nguyen Anh Quan, ViettelPay was successful in the past year as it focused on the population of ordinary people. Its user-friendly features have also distinguished it from other electronic banking platforms.

Especially, Viettel launched its electronic banking platform on the occasion of the Lunar New Year Festival 2019, and continuously advertised it on TV during the festival, which attracted many users. Furthermore, it offered various promotional programs to those who downloaded the ViettelPay app. and used it. As a result, 1.2 million people downloaded the app. and 300,000 users made transactions via ViettelPay.   

In 2019, ViettelPay also launched three systems facilitating its users, namely push notification, operational management, and social network-based sales accounting. Three months after the launch of the three systems, ViettelPay attracted an additional 200,000 users.

Quan shared that promotional programs are necessary but Viettel does not want to use promotion packages as bait to attract more customers. Instead of playing ducks and drakes with its money, ViettelPay tries to bring three values to its customers: First, guaranteeing security and safety for its customers when making any online transactions via its platform; second, taking good care of its customers; third, creating convenient services for its customers.

In fact, ViettelPay has formed a team specializing in researching customers’ needs and habits. “We upgrade and optimize our electronic banking platform after 3-6 months. We have planned to launch a new service named Mobile Money. We are striving to develop ViettelPay into the most popular, most modern and most convenient electronic banking platform in Vietnam,” Quan revealed.  

Phone calls at 6 a.m.

The Smart Operation and Supervision Center in the Central province of Thua Thien - Hue is the first Smart City project in Vietnam, which won the “Innovation” Award at Telecom Asia 2019.

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Customer Manager of Viettel’s branch in Thua Thien - Hue Nguyen Ngoc Nga

Before Viettel started the Smart City project in Thua Thien - Hue, the province had invested little in information technology-based management projects. So Viettel encountered various difficulties while investing in the Smart City project in the province. The first difficulty was that the province did not have much of a budget for the project although the local leadership was very interested in the project. Second, as the province had not invested much in information technology, it lacked infrastructure for such a hi-tech project.  

In this circumstance, Viettel developed a suitable Smart City project for the province. Customer Manager of Viettel’s branch in Thua Thien - Hue Nguyen Ngoc Nga said, “Before selecting Viettel’s Smart City project, the local leadership had considered a number of Smart City projects offered by domestic and international enterprises. Finally, they chose Viettel’s project because it was affordable while its solutions were good.”

Viettel completed the building of the Smart City Supervision and Operation Center in the province in a record 90 days’ time. Nga recalled, “During the time we were implementing the project, Deputy Director of the Thua Thien - Hue Provincial Information and Communication Department Nguyen Xuan Son usually called us at 6 a.m., asking us about the project’s progress and our difficulties. Sometimes, I did not answer his morning call because we had not finished our work from the previous day.”

With their great efforts, Viettel’s engineers finally completed the Smart City project in Thua Thien - Hue province in 90 days’ time.

“Viettel’s Smart City model is not very large like some international companies’ but it is much cheaper, more user-friendly, and more suitable for the locality,” Chairman of the Thua Thien - Hue Provincial People’s Committee Phan Ngoc Tho affirmed.

Translated by Thu Nguyen