Jakarta, Selular.ID – The Cellular Award event, which has become a permanent calendar for the Indonesian telco and ICT industry, will be held again. Although Indonesia is still hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Selular Media Network (SMN) continues to present the event, but in a virtual format like last year.
Industry, government, academia, NGOs and the general public can witness through live streaming of channel Youtube Selular TV, today (Wednesday 7 July 2021), starting at 13.00 – until finished.
For your information, the Cellular Award is a form of SMN’s appreciation to the ICT industry, particularly telecommunication operators, network vendors, handset vendors and other technology companies for their contribution to society with their best services.
This year the Selular Award has entered its 18th event. A phenomenal achievement. The reason is, many award events in other industries have stopped. Several events similar to the Selular Award were also unable to continue their work. For example, the ICS (Indonesia Cellular Show) initiated by Diandra Promosindo (Kompas Gramedia) and the Golden Ring Award (Telko Journalist Forum).
Looking back, the Selular Award was first held in 2003. Like Selular Magazine which was the first medium, the Selular Award is also the first award event in the national telecommunications industry.
Since its inception, the Selular Award has been well received by the industry, because it can be used as a parameter and performance achievement, as well as encouraging healthy competition. Through the Cellular Award, the public and the business world can assess brand-brand and companies that have proud achievements.
In addition to targeting brands and corporates, there are special awards for individuals who have special achievements. As CEO of The Year and Life Time Achievement. Besides that, there are Excellence in Performance. This award is specifically given to executives who make a significant contribution to the progress of the company and the telecommunications industry as a whole.
Those who were able to win awards at the Selular Award event were considered to have been able to overcome challenges, as well as show significant achievements compared to competitors. Such success can boost brand reputation, foster consumer loyalty, and increase sales.
Like Selular Magazine (now changed its format to Selular.ID), the Selular Award summarizes the achievements and journeys of business people in the country’s cellular industry. Starting from the era of 2G, 3G, 4G, until now starting to enter the 5G era.
It spans almost two decades, from the era of transition from fixed telephones to mobile phones, analog and digital, prepaid and postpaid, to the era of social media that places content and applications as popular services for the community.
Chinese domination
Because it has become part of the evolution of the telecommunications industry, the Selular Award itself is a reflection of the ups and downs of business people in navigating the tough competition. There is no guarantee for the brands that once ruled to survive and become the people’s choice.
Just look at Nokia’s journey. In the era of 2G to 3G, the Finnish brand is able to become a market leader mobile phone market in Indonesia. Unmitigated, spanning from 1999 – 2012. Naturally, during that period, Nokia was able to win many awards at the Cellular Award event.
However, the soaring popularity of Android as a challenger to Symbian’s operating system from Nokia, catapulted Samsung as a mobile phone brand that is being hunted by many people until now. On the other hand, Nokia is starting to lose market share. Sales to Microsoft actually made Nokia even more stumbling in the tight competition. In order to maintain its existence, Nokia was forced to sell its mobile phone business unit to HMD Global in 2016.
Indeed, Nokia is not alone. A number of mobile phone brands have also triumphed and received recognition at the Selular Award event. But in the end, it was crushed by competitors. Call it Nexian, Hisense, HTC, OnePlus, Coolpad, Blackberry, Lenovo, Sony, acer, and LG.
Likewise with local brands that had colored the smartphone industry in the country. Such as Polytron, Ti-Phone, Esia, Advan, Axioo, Hi-Max, V-Gen, Pixcom, Telkom Flexy, Wiko and Evercoss.
Except for Advan and Evercoss, local brands are currently “increasingly unheard of”. The transition from 3G to 4G made local smartphones unable to stem the aggressiveness of Chinese brands that came like a flood.
They seduce the market through innovative products, the latest technology, and competitive prices. In order to support the expansion, a very large marketing and operational budget has also been prepared. They also hook top artists as brand ambassador.
As a result of the penetration of these Chinese vendors, the market map is changing rapidly. In just the last five years, Chinese smartphone brands have dominated the domestic mobile phone market. Creating other brands, such as extras only.
According to Canalys, the top five smartphone vendors in Indonesia for the January-March 2021 period are Oppo (24%), Samsung (19%), Vivo (19%), Xiaomi (18%), and Realme (12%). Referring to the Canalys report, a combination of four Chinese brands, already holds 73% of the market share. Even though this achievement does not include second-tier players, such as Nubia, Lenovo, Itel, tecno, and Infinix.
Esia and BOLT!
As with devices, competition between cellular operators is also very tight. With more than 10 operators (period 1997 – 2014), Indonesia is the most liberal country in the world’s telecommunications industry. The fierce competition forces operators to compete on the level of price, not service. However, the protracted tariff war has cut operator profit margins, even leading to losses.
Because they are unable to compete, a number of operators are now just names. Call it Esia (Bakrie Telecom), Axis (Saudi Telecom) and finally BOLT! (Internux/Lippo Group). In fact, at the 2011 Selular Award, the Esia Qwerty Games mobile phone was awarded as “Best Bundling Program”.
The same goes for BOLT! selected as “Most Favorite 4G Provider” aka the favorite 4G service provider in two consecutive years (2015 – 2016) at the Selular Award event. That achievement was defended by BOLT! at the 2017 Selular Award for “Most Innovative Internet Service Provider”.
The fall of Esia, Axis and BOLT! by itself reduces the number of operators operating in Indonesia. Until 2019, the cellular industry in Indonesia leaves five major operators. They are Telkomsel, Indosat Ooredoo, XL Axiata, Tri (Hutchinson Indonesia), and Smartfren Telecom.
The other two operators are Net1 (Sampoerna Telekomunikasi Indonesia) and HiNet (Berca Hardaya). However, the limited coverage makes the customer control of the two operators somewhat smaller. This has an impact on the growth of the company.
Net1 is also known to be gasping for air. The operator belonging to the Sampoerna Group, apparently has not been able to pay off the frequency BHP which has been in arrears for the last two years. If it is unable to pay off the BHP debt, it is not impossible that Net1 will follow in the footsteps of BOLT, which is now just a name.
Not much different conditions also happened to Berca Hardaya. Together with Sitra and Jasnita, HiNet (Berca) are the three remaining BWA operators. However, the government’s decision not to extend spectrum licenses for Sitra and Jasnita in 2018, made Berca the only BWA operator in Indonesia. Although still able to survive, Berca’s achievements are relatively low. During the 10 years of operation, the network development has been minimal.
With a fairly fierce competition, the cellular industry will always show surprising dramas. Will the 5G era change the market map again? Of course time will tell. Which brands/companies are able to survive and then excel. Which brands/companies slipped and then staggered and finally left history.
Whatever it is, model open market that has been adopted by Indonesia and regulations that often change keep the market dynamic. As a result, only those who are adaptive to changes and market tastes will continue to survive and become the customer’s choice.
Everything is reflected in the Selular Award event.
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