As the digital world is scaling up at a rapid pace, telecom operator True Corporation is riding this surging wave through its digital arm, True Digital Group, to bring out innovative solutions and services in response to the fast changing world.
True Digital Group, which was founded in 2017, has set an ambitious goal to become one of the major tech firms in Asean over the next 3-5 years.
The group aims to become an innovation hub with digital ecosystem, opening to work with a broad range of partners.
True Corporation has run its business through tech-driven operations for years thanks to a digital convergence model initiated by Suphachai Chearavanont, chairman of the board of True Corporation and chief executive of Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group.
"Digital convergence was the new business model forged in the past decade. But today it has been proven as the right vision and a foundation for us to drive towards digitalisation which is now making ceaselessly changes for all," said Natwut Amornvivat, co-president of True Corporation.
Mr Natwut has also been the president of True Digital Group since March 2020.
True's convergence model has created the business ecosystem for the firm, encompassing digital entertainment, retail, logistics, commerce, media and content, finance and payment, mobile service and high-speed internet as well as smart solutions.
"True Corporation or even its mobile arm True Move H Universal Communication [TUC] are not just telecom firms. We have been tech companies for years, driven by total digital ecosystem and collaboration with partners," said Mr Natwut.
COMPLETE ECOSYSTEM
True Digital Group, a company wholly owned by True Corporation, is in charge of all businesses and services linked with digital tech.
Mr Natwut stressed True Digital Group's mission is to provide the best digital experience for customers while differentiating business from rivals.
"We look at the overall picture of consumer demand and implement services through our complete ecosystem," he said.
The company aims to transform traditional services for people, such as e-payment, a lending platform and telemedicine, as well as provide optimum benefits from digital services to customers.
"Telecom network is just a tube enabling service but digital services and solutions give them tools for a digital lifestyle," said Mr Natwut.
True Digital Group has become True Corporation's core revenue generator in terms of digital services and solutions.
"Our ecosystem comprises digital and corporate solutions, new businesses and overall digital services through content, entertainment, data analytics, mobile content, telemedicine, agriculture as well as 5G solutions for vertical industries," he said.
True Digital Group's renowned services include TrueID platform, which provides entertainment content and privileges for True customers.
Users can create content through the platform and get revenue on an income sharing basis. TrueID is now a leading video content platform with 30 million active users a month.
True Digital Group also launched the telemedicine service in early 2020 when the Covid-19 outbreak began in Thailand to cater to demand for healthcare services.
It also supports agriTech, including an ear-tag sensor system for cows to monitor their behaviour and health, which can help reduce the cost for monitoring and boost productivity.
The project has expanded its reach to pig and chicken farms with artificial intelligence (AI) system.
Supporting retail business, the group provides unmanned stores with heatmap monitoring cameras for product management.
The group has supported credit scoring for TrueMoney's lending services with data analytics and rolled out the True Smart Living app for smart home operating system.
DATA ANALYTICS
According to Mr Natwut, data analytics is one of the crucial tech fronts in the new economy as it can lead to new services and serve other businesses.
True Corporation can gain data from direct customer interaction as well as their browsing on digital platforms which makes the company gain a competitive advantage over other players.
Data can be useful for operations and marketing approaches by vertical businesses and partners.
True Digital Group provides a marketing insights solution "Geo Pulse", which uses highly precise location-based insights on consumer density, with the ability to cross reference with its consumer profile and product interest segments as well as other big data insights.
The group's mission in the data analytics frontier is to make sure the data can be turned into valuable sources for internal process and create revenue for parties involved.
According to him, other digital service providers may usher in products and solutions but they still lack a complete ecosystem from vertical sectors. The complete ecosystem will potentially create optimum benefit for consumers.
As well, True has True digital park as a 5G innovation hub, True digital academy to build new talents as well as True data centre and cloud services, which can support the complete ecosystem.
"We strongly believe in partnership and a complete ecosystem, which can provide crucial benefits for customers via innovative platforms," said Mr Natwut.
5G TECH
Mr Natwut stressed 5G tech would be a core connection over the next 3-4 years.
TUC is now implementing mobile edge computing (MEC) – a type of edge computing that extends the capabilities of cloud computing by bringing it to the edge of the network.
By shifting the load of cloud computing to individual local servers, MEC helps reduce congestion on mobile networks and decreases latency, enhancing the quality of experience for end users.
He said MEC brings cloud near the 5G network which boosts speed and reduces latency, which can be a boon for various segments such as telesurgery and e-sports.
He said it is still hard to predict when 5G tech will have a crucial influence on the business ecosystem.
The mass adoption of 5G tech can be expected in 2022 while manufacturing industries could also be the major adopters for competitive advantage.
The convergence concept benefits all business units of True, starting from fixed broadband and mobile services and then expanding to True point privilege for shopping and driving towards tech and data operations as well as a total digital ecosystem at present.
"Without a leader who strongly pushed for the correct mission, the group would not have come to this stage today," Mr Natwut concluded.
