Myanmar’s hyper growth era has ended according to Telenor

Telenor Myanmar will shift focus towards data services as the era of rapid initial subscriber growth comes to a close.

Telenor Myanamar CEO Lars Erik Tellmann told that the competitive environment is rapidly changing, with operators targeting internet service use.

Since launching services in September 2014, Telenor Myanmar’s subscriber base has rapidly increased to 18 million, making the operator the second largest industry player. Myanmar’s telecoms market has been experiencing unprecedented growth after the sector was liberalized in 2011.

But Tellmann said this growth has slowed significantly now that anybody who wants to own a SIM has now purchased one, so the fight is turning to existing customers. “Super hyper growth has flattened,” Tellman told.

As of the third quarter, around 40% of Telenor Myanmar’s revenue was generated from data services. In a market with very low fixed line penetration and few PCs, smartphones are the primary way Myanmar consumers are accessing the internet, he said.

Social media is helping drive increased data consumption, with Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber proving particularly popular in the market.