In the run up to MWC 2021, CEO of Cloudike, Igor Filatov spoke to The Fast Mode in a brief interview this week, on how the company is gearing up for the event. As a leading provider of personal cloud storage solutions for operators, Cloudike discussed their focus areas and how their offering helps operators create service differentiation and enhance their value added services (VAS) portfolio.
Q: How does it feel to be back at MWC?
Igor Filatov,CEO, Cloudike
A: We are glad to be back to an offline format, to see our customers and partners at this important event.
Q: What's your showcase theme this year, and what are the key technologies you will be exhibiting/discussing?
A: As in previous years, we will be showcasing our personal cloud storage solution for telecoms, OEMs, retailers and streaming companies. However, this year we’d like to share news on our developments - new customers and projects, product roadmap and new attractive features as well as new cooperation programs for our existing customers and prospects. This will build on the assurance given to our customers regarding value and profitability driven by our solution. It also validates our value proposition of enhancing revenues via additional services developed from new advancements, as part of operators' strategy to offset the stagnation of revenue from their core business.
Q: What's your outlook for telecoms for the rest of 2021?
A: Based on current trends, we are expecting a more stable year with new technology innovations across emerging segments such as streaming services, 5G, IoT, big data, ML and AI, all of which are forecast to fuel market growth.
Q: With operator mobile revenue growth reaching a saturation point, how do value-added-services such as personal cloud storage help operators improve their ARPU and revenue?
A: Yes, this is exactly the point which we are constantly discussing with operators. Indeed our experience with existing clients using personal cloud storage has seen up to 1 USD of increased ARPU and we clearly notice that the most loyal and high-paying subscribers are the ones that are deeply engaged with the operator ecosystem. Personal cloud storage is one of the key elements in such an ecosystem and its impact towards reducing churn and increasing ARPU growth can’t be underestimated.
Q: In the digital age we are now, where consumption of digital content continues to rise, what will be the demand for a personal cloud storage service? What content-type will see the biggest use for the service?
A: Perhaps the most common use case is data and content back-up as in the case of photos and contacts. However, given the evolution in customer needs and requirements, we have enhanced our service to include richer features such as facial recognition, educational tips, easy migration from other personal cloud services and a lot more.
Q: Providing a personal cloud storage service on mobile is expected to spur its take-up rates compared to offering it on fixed broadband. Why?
A: Mobile Internet is becoming more and more available and we spend most of our time outside of our Wi-Fi coverage. Also when providing such services from a mobile operator, the operator can zero-rate the data consumed on this service, which motivates users to download/upload more content.
Q: What rich features are being added to today's personal cloud storage services?
A: Perhaps one of the most interesting features is the single navigation bar which will automatically launch all available functions, acting as an easy-access user dashboard. We are offering collaborative possibilities like shared folders and shared albums as well as family access. The most important features however will be duplicate photos clean-up functionality, public link management and photo editor functions.
Q: Why Cloudike? What's your competitive edge?
A: First of all, we are offering a white label solution - which means that it will be fully incorporated into the existing ecosystem or super apps. We provide a completely branded, effortlessly integrated (billing, provisioning) solution. For telecom operators and their customers, this translates into a common set of services and features as provided across existing operator applications, with users now being able to seamlessly switch back and forth across the expanded operator ecosystem.
Cloudike will be exhibiting at Stand 2K27 in Hall 2.
