Maxis widens lead ahead of Digi

Malaysia - Telco company Maxis has widened its lead slightly ahead of arch rival Digi in terms of subscriber numbers despite lower ad spend in 2007. Digi was the number one spender on the back of its iconic Yellow Man campaign.

AC Nielsen reported that in 2007, Digi had a 40% increase in ad spend from RM106.7 million in 2006 to RM149.6 million in 2007, while Maxis recorded a decline of 18% from RM157.2 million in 2006 to RM128.3 million in 2007.

Maxis said that its share of the postpaid segment rose to 48.96% as at end-2007 from 48.33% in 2006. Its prepaid market rose to 40.2% from 40.01%. Digi reached a market share of 27.47% at end 2007, slightly higher than 27.31% at end 2006. However, its share of the prepaid market dropped to 29.34% from 29.86%.

Sandip Das, CEO of Maxis, attributed Maxis' subscriber gains to successful segmental marketing and better communication of its revamped telco packages.

As at end-December last year, Maxis had 9.72 million mobile phone subscribers in Malaysia, adding 1.66 million subscribers from 8.06 million users as at end-2006. Maxis reports that it expects to reach 10 million subscribers in March this year. DiGi has 6.4 million subscribers as at end 2007.