Malaysia

Key Mobile Trends

The  Malaysian mobile youth market has seen tremendous growth over the last decade. Penetration rates for youth subscription have exceeded 100% across all age groups. Youth ARPU for operators has peaked and started to decline as operators reduce price to attract more young people. However, it’s not the rate of calls, SMS and data connections that attract young people to a specific operator. Youth preferences are driven by more fundamental drivers of Social Currency – need to belong and need to be significant. Similarly, when it comes to handset brands, preferences among Malaysian youth are driven once again by the fundamental drivers. Traditionally a stronghold of Nokia and Sony Ericsson, Malaysian youth have migrated to BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone since these brands provide more Social Currency.

flickr: pixelthing

Implications

Malaysian operators need to find new revenue channels and focus on reducing churn rates in the saturated youth market. While revenue from mobile data continues to grow, smartphones are beginning to replace feature phones among college students and young professionals. The key challenge for mobile brands is to address the underlying fundamental drivers that shape youth preferences and decisions. For more details, contact mobileYouth 2012 Report.

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