Telefónica Digital, the company’s new business division focused on cloud computing, mobile advertising, M2M and eHealth, reiterated its commitment to driving openness in mobile ecosystems and support for Mozilla’s HTML5 platform.
In a press event in London last week, Telefónica Digital said it plans to launch the first Firefox OS devices in Brazil in early 2013. Telefónica will also make a multi million Euro investment to kick start the mobile advertising market in Brazil, using its successful UK O2 Media model as a blueprint.
Telefónica Digital was created in September 2011.
Telefónica Digital also announced:
- Global framework agreements with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Research In Motion (RIM) — Telefónica will offer Direct to Bill payments as a means of driving the monetisation of mobile content. Telefónica has started to roll out Direct to Bill in Europe, where it is already proving popular with customers. In Germany, 400,000 customers per month on average are now making payments for a variety of products and services across different platforms. Telefónica plans to have the capability live in 14 markets globally by year end.
- A partnership with Etisalat — the two companies will jointly develop business opportunities in Machine-to-Machine (M2M), financial services, cloud computing, eHealth, mobile advertising and over-the-top communications. Under the terms of the agreement, Telefónica will jointly work with Etisalat in the acquisition of video content, while Etisalat will also participate in Telefónica’s global device procurement process. The partnership expands Telefónica’s addressable market by 17 countries and 170m customers.
“We have a clear vision for Telefónica of becoming a credible leader in a range of new services beyond connectivity and we have set in place the right partnerships with key players, as well as building our own capabilities, to help us achieve this. We are already delivering growth levels well in excess of market norms and we are fast becoming materially significant to Telefónica,” said Matthew Key, Chairman & CEO of Telefónica Digital.