Limitless connectivity…. connected anywhere, anytime
With 2019 now behind us I wanted to recap on some of the year’s high points and also to share some of our plans for 2020. Our customers sent 50 million top-ups, to well, 50 million people across 152 countries! While the numbers speak volumes, the real story is the growing need for people around the world to be connected in real time wherever they are and whenever they want.
Our business is helping to make connection a reality at a time when connectivity has never been so important.
Ding started in 2006 with a simple goal of helping people connect to their families more easily and today it has matured into a service that is crucial to the lives of millions of people. Our business is helping to make connection a reality at a time when connectivity has never been so important.
A more connected world
[1]All around the mobile ecosystem, companies are embracing the idea of a more connected world. Some of our business partners are talking to us about how mobile is fulfilling its potential to be an educational tool, a tool to upskill, to grow businesses and bridge communities. Or even bigger, something which has the potential to help ease the awful burden of poverty for billions of people.
Innovation and technology have the potential to positively impact the lives of many of those marginalised around the world by giving them access to information and to help them stay connected. As connectivity is about to reach new heights with the advent of 5G we are seeing an unprecedented pace of change in how we communicate – but this pace of change is not being felt as acutely in all parts of society with half the world still offline according to the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development. Their recent UN report suggests that global internet growth has stalled – rising only slightly to 54.8% from 53.1% in 2018. In low-income countries, household internet adoption improved by a mere 0.8%. To counter this the report suggests we need to drive the concept of ‘meaningful universal connectivity’ – i.e. broadband that is available, accessible, and affordable to accelerate their mobile access.
The billions of people around the world that are still not connected to the internet are at a huge disadvantage when almost all of the advances we are seeing rely in some way on the internet. They are still unable to take advantage of all the ecommerce and IoT (internet of things) developments have to offer, as well as the incredible technological innovations that we are on the cusp of experiencing in a 5G world.
For Ding, many of our customers are people on the move who are supporting their families back home. Keeping them connected with home is our goal and something we work hard at every day. We want to work with the industry to make connectivity and access to the internet a Universal Human Right, because without it, we leave the vulnerable behind.
Getting closer to our customers
Our customers drive our business so now we are expanding how we serve them in terms of both new products and also new territories. Our customers can now send a gift voucher to a family member or pay an online streaming subscription such as Spotify.
….. increasingly our customers need to be connected anywhere, anytime, and via any channel.
Ding is about improving frequency of contact with everyone and also expanding the range of services that are increasingly part of our customers lives. We are pretty excited about where we are going and what that will mean in terms of better services.
Wishing you all a happy New Year.
[1] https://broadbandcommission.org/publications/Pages/SOB-2019.aspx
