2014-12-02

Bangladesh Development Reports

Technology company Xurpas is setting its sights on expanding in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Thailand.

Xurpas, which listed its shares at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Tuesday, raised P1.36 billion from its initial public offering. Its shares soared nearly 50 percent from its IPO price.

Xurpas creates mobile content and services, such as online casual games, for the country’s top telecommunications companies such as Globe and Smart.

Xurpas president Nix Nolledo said the company considers Indonesia, Bangladesh and Thailand as its core target markets for its expansion in Southeast Asia.

He noted Southeast Asia is a high-growth market with 680 million SIMs in circulation for a population of about 630 million.

“Every SIM represents an identity. Every identity is a potential customer. We want to reach all of them. It’s not a matter of a particular sequence, but we want to blanket this territory as quickly as we can,” he said.

“We’re only now distributing in the Philippines but imagine now we can reach six to seven times our total range today. A lot of opportunities for us today.”

Being the only mobile consumer tech company in Southeast Asia is expected to boost Xurpas’ profile in the region.

Nolledo said the company has started talking to major telecommunications groups in Southeast Asia for possible projects.

“What’s consistent in our business model is that we are consistent in our expansion. Any market we enter like Philippines, we need to have partnerships with telecom operators. Ideal is we are connected to everyone. We want to be telecom-agnostic… Another critical factor for us, telecom operators are looking for new products and services – to create new revenue streams outside calls and text messages. We don’t mind that products are branded by operators,” he said.

For instance, casual games communities like Globe Telecom’s Games with Friends and Smart Communications’ Let’s Play are Xurpas projects.

At the same time, Xurpas is also planning to launch new products and services as it expands in the Philippines.

“Only about 4 million customers in the Philippines for just our products and services per month. Given that there are 100 million people in the country,about 110 million SIMs in the market, we feel even for our core product set, there’s still a lot of room for growth. With the advent of smartphones, technology will enable us to do richer experiences, very basic entertainment categories,” Nolledo said.

With report from Michelle Ong, ANC

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