VietNamNet Bridge - After Vinaphone’s entry, Viettel, the largest mobile phone network in Vietnam, has officially penetrated the OTT market with the Mocha Messenger app.

After three months of being developed and tested (from last December) with approximately 30,000 subscribers, Viettel has officially launched Mocha Messenger app with many features introduced to be exclusive.

In addition to sending text messages, voice messages and pictures, this application also supplies music, which Viettel confirmed to be the only feature on OTT apps in Vietnam and the world.

However, Mocha Messenger does not have calling features like its rivals as Zalo, Viber, WhatsApp, Skype ...

Vo Thanh Hai, Director of Viettel Telecom Media Center, which developed the app, said Viettel does not aim to seeking revenue from this service.

"We will consider this goal when we have 10-20 million users. However, OTT services are a potential area and Viettel plans to develop 10 services to generate revenue from Mocha," Hai said.

He hoped that by the end of 2015, this application will have about one million subscribers.

Hai explained that mobile networks in Vietnam have complained that free messaging services have caused losses of millions of USD, but Viettel launched the app because the OTT market has become a new trend.

If mobile operators do not develop OTT, this trend will still grow and continue to shrink revenue from the telecommunications market.

"So Viettel participates in this market to seek opportunities to increase revenue from value-added services instead of watching the market change every day," Hai said.

He added that in the future Viettel will also integrate the call function on this service.

Earlier, Vinaphone’s introduction of the OTT app called VietTalk in late 2014 was considered a shot starting the battle between mobile networks and OTT service providers.

The launch of this OTT app of Viettel signals a fiercer "war".

X. Hai