Telcos need to partner with hyperscalers to tap $513bn digital consumer services market: Report

Telecom operators will need to work with hyperscalers to take a bigger slice of the revenue in the digital consumer services market which will grow at 5-21% CAGR to be potentially valued at $513 billion by 2027, according to the latest report by Omdia.

Leading hyperscalers include Amazon Web Services, Google , Meta, Apple, Microsoft Azure among others.

The research firm in a report said that non-traditional categories of digital gaming, online video, messaging apps, smart home, and digital music are showing faster growth, with the two biggest areas being digital gaming and online video.

“Service providers must look beyond data and diversify into adjacent digital markets to enable the continued growth of their telco consumer businesses,” according to Jonathan Doran, Principal Analyst, Digital Consumer Operator Strategy, Omdia. He said many telcos have already invested in TV and online video entertainment, but there are other fast-growing markets that telcos can also explore.

“Adopting the right go-to-market strategy and business model for each individual service area will be critical to striking the balance between achieving market success and mitigating financial risk,” said Doran.

Other areas offering a strong future potential for telcos include e-health and financial services, and several leading players have already started to invest in these spaces, as per Omdia.

For instance, SK Telecom owns South Korea’s most popular online store with over 34 million active customers, while Vodacom South Africa has over 1.1 million monthly active users (MAUs) for its VodaPay service.

India’s Bharti Airtel is present in several segments including consumer and enterprise services, subsea cable, data centres, direct-to-home (DTH) service and also has an Airtel Payments Bank unit. Similarly, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea have a diverse set of services, for both consumers and businesses.

Omdia, however, predicts that all growth areas will experience significant competition from hyperscalers — specifically the global tech giants Google, Amazon, Meta, and Apple.

“In many areas, telcos will need to accept that competing head-on is unrealistic and developing partnerships with such players is not only more pragmatic but will also serve to strengthen their own products and brands” Doran said.

“Omdia’s Digital Consumer Operator Strategy Benchmark shows that the more service providers actively invest in a given service area – including through partnerships – the bigger market impact they have, which in turn better positions them to take a bigger slice of overall market revenue”.