China Unicom’s WoStore Leads the Online Era

With the coming of 3G, traditional mobile services are fading away quickly, and their importance in the value chain is declining. The mobile service value chain is moving towards content and applications with the business/application platform at the core of mobile industry operations. Apple has successfully built applications into its core competency. In July 2008, less than one year after its launch, AppStore exceeded 2 billion downloads and had more than 80,000 applications in its range. The success of AppStore stimulated terminal manufacturers and operating system providers. They realized that the Internet had entered a new era of mobile content and applications, and AppStore was already in a dominating position. Operators knew they had to seize the strategic initiative in 3G competition. Taking the number one position from AppStore and occupying the commanding heights has become the new “golden rule” in the business strategy of the three major operators in China.

Key Marketing Strategy

China Unicom has built the world’s largest WCDMA network with more than 10 million 3G users. Chang Xiaobin, president of China Unicom, proposed making 3G services a “leading edge” and called for the deep convergence of all kinds of mobile and fixed services. “Star terminals + AppStore” has become a key strategy for China Unicom to control the industry chain and expand its 3G market.

China Unicom hopes to learn from the experience of AppStore and adopt its own version of Apple’s successful iPhone + AppStore operation model. China Unicom aims to use an open win-win business model, bringing together all links in the mobile Internet chain. China Unicom’s 3G strategy involves meeting or exceeding every customer requirement in order to secure a share of the mobile products and services market.

After one year of preparation, China Unicom invited mainstream vendors to bid on the creation of its new application store. ZTE survived three rounds of rigorous tests and bid evaluations in a field of seven vendors to be selected as the builder and contractor of the store. The company demonstrated outstanding performance in basic functions, customized functions, system performance and whole process testing by China Unicom. With a highly customized system, a development team with quick response and professional operation support, ZTE won favor with China Unicom. Hand in hand, ZTE and China Unicom moved towards the mobile Internet market.

One-Stop Solution

In the mobile Internet era, agility is the highest priority. High standards and quick system deployment are China Unicom’s top requirements. ZTE selected key staff from the sales, marketing, R&D, customer service and logistics departments to form a 150 member development team. The team adopted an agile development and concentrated operation approach, working on site for three months. They provided customized development for the new system, including demand analysis, high-level design, low-level design, encoding, testing and production release all in quick time. This enabled China Unicom’s WoStore to go online very rapidly.

ZTE provided a one-stop “terminal + service platform + operation scheme” solution. Mature Internet and telecommunications technologies were introduced so that WoStore users would have a comfortable service experience and more high-end mobile users would be drawn in. The solution has a professional channel marketing function that supports entity and non-entity marketing, makes full use channel resources, and promotes WoStore to the market. The data mining and analysis functions can be used for precise and intelligent marketing, for providing personalized services, and to promote products. With a mature VAC authentication, billing, and report mechanism, ZTE’s one-stop billing solution helped China Unicom solve the problem of a lengthy billing cycle.

WoStore’s interface was designed with the personalized requirements of a youthful consumer group in mind. The stylized design makes shopping simple, enjoyable, and convenient. WoStore also has a recommendation system that provides differentiated services for China Unicom’s partners.

Project construction is only the beginning; the real competition lies in operation. ZTE arranged for a 50 person operation team to be stationed on site for a year and a half. This gave China Unicom powerful operational support. In the commendation letter to ZTE’s WoStore team, China Unicom stated that ZTE had carried out much optimized operation analysis and support work. With its rich operations experience, rigorous work style and excellent data analysis capability, ZTE has helped the WoStore operation base maintain the developer community forum, compile rich industry content before and after the WoStore launch, and mine and process business data after the launch. ZTE supported customer service by communicating with customers and helped to handle customer complaints effectively. ZTE played an important role in the successful operation of WoStore.

Leading the Online Era

When WoStore was launched on November 10, 2010, mobile application stores in China entered into a three way competition. Relying on the advantages of the world’s largest WCDMA network, China Unicom teamed up with developers, platform suppliers and terminal manufacturers to construct a sound industry chain that would benefit user interests and industry development.

WoStore’s advantage is that it supports all users and full-service operation. It is an open, cross-platform, carrier-class mobile Internet application portal. WoStore supports mainstream operating systems such as Symbian, WM, Android and Java, and supports more than 600 terminals from manufacturers such as ZTE, Nokia, Samsung, Moto, HTC, Sony Ericsson and Lenovo. More than 5400 popular applications are available in under six categories: games, tools, entertainment, themes, life and reading. WoStore has mature background management processes that are easy to use. It has user friendly interfaces, and subscription can be completed in three steps. WoStore sparks developers’ enthusiasm. It can be used to collect payments quickly, and it has rich development materials and training courses.

Branding is the life of mobile Internet services. Since WoStore was launched, ZTE has cooperated with China Unicom in planning and carrying out brand promotion activities. At the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress 2010, ZTE distributed publicity material in English, traditional Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch. ZTE has also sent out more than 500 press releases, which has helped China Unicom promote WoStore. Three months after WoStore’s launch, the number of registered users is growing quickly by more than 10,000 a day. The total number of users has exceeded 1 million.

WoStore aims to enhance user experience and forge China Unicom’s digital channels. It will increase user traffic and contribute to an open telecom operation model. WoStore enhances China Unicom’s Internet services and is an integral part of China Unicom’s Internet strategy blueprint.