Highlights:
- Claro Argentina’s launch represents the third deployment of Synchronica’s Mobile IM service by the América Móvil Group to date
- Synchronica has a group-wide framework agreement – emanating from its acquisition of Colibria’s IMPS IM business – to deploy the service across all 17 América Móvil subsidiaries
- The group-wide agreement provides Synchronica with a strong, growing recurring revenue stream
Synchronica plc, the international provider of mobile Email and synchronization solutions, announces that Claro América Móvil’s Claro Argentina has launched Claro Messenger, a carrier-branded mobile Instant Messaging service based on, and powered by, Synchronica’s hosted IMPS platform. The launch represents the third of 15 mobile IM services due to go live as part of América Móvil’s group-wide framework agreement with Synchronica.
The Claro Messenger Instant Messaging service is available exclusively to Claro’s customers. Claro Argentina customers can register for the service by visiting the dedicated Claro Messenger portal (http://www.claro.com.ar/messenger), or by simply using their phone to navigate to the Msngr icon in the Claro WAP menu. The service acts as a churn inhibitor, because customers spread their identities virally and become dependent on the service to stay in touch with people. Defecting to a rival carrier would mean the loss of their IM identity.
The group-wide framework agreement with América Móvil provides Synchronica with a strong, growing recurring revenue stream. As well as Claro Argentina, Telcel Mexico and Comcel Colombia have already launched a Synchronica-based IM service; the remaining 14 subsidiaries are all expected to launch before 31 March 2011.
The group-wide framework agreement with América Móvil was originally signed by Colibria, whose IMPS Instant Messaging business was acquired by Synchronica in March 2010. Since then, Synchronica has worked closely with América Móvil to deliver on this commitment.
Commenting on the market for Value Added Services (VAS) in Latin America, Daniele Tricarico, Telecoms Research Analyst for Latin America at Informa, said:Â “In Latin America, where pre-paid plans dominate, ‘sticky’ VAS such as mobile IM are proving to be successful churn inhibitors. As overall smartphone penetration in LatAm remains under 5%, and prepaid is dominant, it makes a lot of sense for mobile operators to provide device-agnostic VAS, so that they can reach their entire subscriber base. Non- SMS messaging VAS like IM are a strong trend in LatAm, and the opportunity exists for operator-owned IM communities. For the next five years we expect solid growth of IM in the region, with IM revenues growing from around US$1.3billion at end-2010 to US$3.3billion at end-2015.”
Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica, added: “Claro Argentina is now the third operating subsidiary of América Móvil to launch the Claro Messenger instant messaging service. Our solution enables Claro to reduce churn and protect its market leadership by creating its very own branded IM community that will prove popular and addictive. Our experience shows that once users sign up for a mobile IM service and spread their IM identity online, it is much less likely that they will churn to a competing carrier and lose this online ID.”
Latin America is well ahead of the world average in mobile phone penetration, having reached an average of 93% penetration in mid-2010 against a global rate of around 73%. Over 80% of the region’s mobile subscribers are on prepaid plans (Source: BuddeComm). Argentina’s mobile market is the third largest in Latin America, after Brazil and Mexico. In terms of mobile penetration, Argentina is the leader in South and Central America.
Press Release via Synchronica
