How do operators launch new packages under homogeneous competition?

Since the commercial use of 4G, superior policies and consumer demands have been constantly changing. For this reason, operators have also continuously innovated in product and package content design: for example, in 2017, long-distance voice roaming charges were cancelled, and in 2018, it is planned to cancel mobile data roaming charges; the voice services in regular packages such as Feixiang 4G package, Lexiang 4G package, and 4G national package are unified to the domestic voice charging standards; the regular package content is formulated as domestic voice + domestic data + provincial data.

New packages emerge

With the rise of social platforms such as QQ, WeChat, and Weibo, as well as applications covering food, clothing, housing, and transportation, the data traffic in conventional packages can no longer meet the needs of consumers. New packages such as daily rental cards, Internet cards, and unlimited data traffic have emerged.

[[233520]]

First, daily rental cards are the fierce generals who seize the second card slot. After China Unicom launched the daily rental card in August 2016, China Telecom and China Mobile also launched daily rental cards. China Mobile and China Unicom have adopted a product policy of free monthly rental, while the monthly rental of China Telecom's daily rental card is generally 5-8 yuan/month (traffic is calculated on a daily basis), 1 yuan/500M-1G/day for provincial traffic, 2 yuan/500M-1G/day for domestic traffic, and a number of voice calls. In the more than one year of the development of daily rental cards, operators have launched a total of 7 daily rental cards, which are divided into ordinary daily rental cards, video daily rental cards, and China Unicom has even launched unlimited daily rental cards. Daily rental cards not only solve the rigid demand problems of some large traffic users, but also become the main force for operators to seize the second card slot.

Second, Tencent King Card has become the benchmark for Internet cards. In the past two years, the game and video industries have experienced explosive growth. China Unicom and China Telecom have targeted this demand of users and jointly launched Internet cards with major Internet companies. Most of the monthly rents for this type of card are below 60 yuan, and most of them are daily rental cards. The traffic of Internet cards is mostly 1 yuan/500M-1G/day (no charge if not used). In addition, it also provides services such as voice calls, specific privileges, and free traffic for specific apps. Among them, Tencent King Card performs the best among Internet cards. It focuses on low tariffs and Tencent application free traffic strategy. With the help of Tencent channel promotion, by adding free traffic applications and family numbers and upgrading traffic to domestic traffic, the number of new users exceeded 50 million 13 months after its issuance. Internet cards have low development costs but can attract high-quality new users. China Unicom and China Telecom may continue to learn from successful examples to develop more products, hoping to bring in more users.

Third, unlimited packages are a depth bomb that stirs up the market. China Unicom launched an unlimited package in March 2017, the Ice Cream Package, which is divided into two versions, 398 yuan and 198 yuan. Taking Guangdong as an example, the 398 yuan monthly package (half-price monthly rent for a long time, that is, 199 yuan/month) enjoys unlimited voice and data traffic nationwide, but only the first 40G of total traffic is provided with 4G network speed, and then it is reduced to 3G network speed. After accumulating to 100G, the data Internet function is turned off and restored the next month; the 198 yuan monthly package enjoys unlimited domestic traffic and 1,500 minutes of domestic voice. The first 15G of total traffic is provided with 4G network speed, and then it is reduced to 3G speed. After 100G, the data Internet function is turned off and restored the next month. This package is novel and cost-effective, and has a certain appeal. Telecom is unwilling to lag behind, and launched the national version and provincial version of the unlimited package in May of the same year, and launched an unlimited fusion package in combination with broadband, secondary cards, IPTV, etc., using a comparison algorithm to quickly attract users to join the network. After losing many users to the unlimited packages of China Telecom and China Unicom, China Mobile had to join the war. From the latest unlimited packages of the three operators in Guangdong, it can be seen that China Telecom has obvious advantages such as low threshold and sharing of primary and secondary cards; China Unicom tries to add video directional traffic and membership privileges to increase competitiveness, but other aspects are quite satisfactory; China Mobile's unlimited package has a wide coverage, but the traffic is low and there are many restrictions, so its market competitiveness is relatively small.

New card products are frequently launched: cross-industry cooperation becomes the mainstream

Since 2018, the operator has launched several new products.

First, the operator wants to take advantage of the star fan effect. Telecom and Li Chen launched the first star-customized Internet card in China, the Big Black Bull Card. The card is available in two tiers: 49 yuan and 99 yuan (both packages are unlimited packages). The 49 yuan tier requires a two-month experience of unlimited use in the province before upgrading to unlimited use in China. Users can get more than a dozen exclusive benefits, including customized greetings from Li Chen, exclusive images, special purchases of peripheral products, autographed photos, and free tickets to meet-and-greet events. They will also get the opportunity to visit Li Chen's movies and TV series, which is very attractive to fans.

Then, the operators set their sights on finance. China Unicom and China Telecom began to cooperate with banks to launch co-branded credit cards. China Unicom and China CITIC Bank launched the Tencent Wangka co-branded credit card, which offers free annual fees and monthly package rentals, and all the benefits of the credit card and Wangka. Guangdong Telecom and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Credit Card jointly launched the "Yiqifa" co-branded card, which includes a Guangdong Telecom business package card (with two options of 99 yuan and 59 yuan, of which the 99 yuan package is an "unlimited traffic" package), and a Shanghai Pudong Development Bank platinum credit card, and users can enjoy all the privileges of the platinum card. The two traditional enterprises, operators and banks, have joined forces to allow consumers to meet both daily communication consumption and financial consumption needs, and also allow the two cooperative brands to improve their differentiated advantages and comprehensive competitiveness in their industry.

There is still a long way to go to improve competitiveness

Judging from the products launched by operators this year, it is expected that the content of operators' product packages in the future will continue to use daily rental cards, Internet cards, and unlimited packages upgraded to domestic traffic as regular packages for new products, and continue to cooperate with celebrities, the financial industry and other traditional companies to launch mutually reinforcing products.

In addition, major video, music, and game platforms are increasingly focusing on membership. People need to subscribe to various memberships if they want to download videos and music, or even watch videos and listen to music online, and they need to buy equipment to play games. Therefore, operators can consider cooperating with major video, music, and game platforms and bundling corresponding membership or specific game equipment packages in product design to attract more users to join the network.

Observing the packages launched by operators in recent years, the rates and product packaging have become similar, and the differentiation is getting smaller and smaller. Therefore, only by seeking breakthroughs in homogeneous competition can more profits be obtained.