MANILA, Philippines — After challenging incumbents Globe and PLDT in the telecommunications space, the group of Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy wants another showdown with the two industry giants, this time in digital finance.
Dito CME Holdings Inc. president Eric Alberto told The STAR in an interview that there are interesting opportunities in the digital finance space, which the company plans to pursue in the near future.
“We want to participate in the digital fintech space. We are in discussions with a number of partners,” Alberto told The STAR.
“Obviously, that’s an area we want to capitalize on because the Udenna Group, including the telco, has millions of consumer touchpoints every day,” he said.
Uy’s Udenna group has a diversified portfolio which covers distribution of petroleum products, shipping and logistics, property development, education, food, gaming and tourism, infrastructure, gas-to-power and telecommunications.
“Each day we do have millions of consumer interactions and the power of those transactions as translated to data, data interactions, is a very powerful tool, particularly when you extend that to the fintech space,” Alberto said.
Dito CME is a publicly listed holding company handling the Udenna Group’s investments in the space of media, communications, entertainment and ICT.
Its effective ownership of Dito Telecommunity, the country’s new major telco player, is 53.7 percent.
Dito Telecommunity made its commercial debut on March 8 in selected areas in Visayas and Mindanao, marking its official entry in the telco industry in a bid to challenge industry giants Globe and PLDT.
Since its launch, Dito has been able to attract over four million subscribers and is targeting to end the year with five million users.
Should Dito CME decide to venture into the digital finance business, it would again cross paths with Globe and PLDT, which has GCash and PayMaya, respectively.
“Ayala has GCash. The MVP Group has PayMaya. So us, we’re open to exploring, not necessarily the wallet space, that’s overly crowded, but some other space along the same lines where we could fully leverage the power of our consumer touchpoints,” Alberto said.
“You could imagine that like telco, the fintech space is also underserved, particularly the younger set. That’s a particular segment we will address,” he said.
Alberto said the country is also underserved in terms of microcredits.
“With that kind of play and our millions of touchpoints, maybe there’s something there that we could exploit and thus find synergies,” he said.
Aside from Dito Telecommunity, Dito CME’s business units also include managed analytics services company Unalytics, online education platform Luna Academy, and media solutions company Acuity Global.