Why does the virtual operator this "catfish" bring no communication revolution?

Now the big Three are like ice in the frozen lunar months, with the heat of a few tiny matches hard to shake. Unequal competition, the operation of the dependant, and the low degree of market cognition all affect the "catfish" of the virtual operator all the times.

August 25 Ministry of Industry issued a virtual operator license (third batch) to 6 companies. Up until recently, a total of 25 companies have been licensed virtual operators. According to relevant sources, the fourth batch of virtual operator License Application companies are also in the process of certification, will soon be issued, the number of virtual operators will break through 30.

2013, the Ministry of Industry decided to introduce private capital into the mobile communications business, at that time this decision is considered to break the long-standing monopoly of the three communications companies effective means. So since December 2013 the first batch of virtual operator license, in a short period of 8 months, there are two groups of private enterprises have been allowed to engage in "virtual operations" business, and virtual operators unique to the 170th segment, also began in March 2014 officially published.

When a virtual operator really starts to receive a batch of actions, the communications market immediately appeared to Ali, Beijing-east as a representative of a group of enterprises have launched a feature of communication services, and even the Beijing-East communications directly set the package on the Internet to allow consumers to vote to determine the choice, which in the previous three major communications monopoly is not to think of things. and later virtual operators of the shot is increasingly ruthless and more targeted, for example, the snail mobile launched the concept of "no card", the tariff is lower and the flow is not clear 0; Ali Communication launched the "Pro" card to achieve the voice part and the flow of part of the flexible conversion; Eschde even launched consumer personalized customized package service. These moves undoubtedly hit the sore spot of the big Three.

When the private capital into the communications market, the expected to drive the "catfish effect" did not appear on time, the market situation again, and even appeared far special communications suspected transfer of virtual operators to take photos, di-letter through the virtual operator license Hong Kong listing and other events. So that some experts assert that China's virtual operators are entirely to hype the concept, not really to do, so the communication revolution brought by the virtual operators will not appear, then the reality is really this?

Exaggerated "catfish effect", dependant

The so-called virtual operators, refers to the telecommunications operators in a certain business or a number of business partnerships to form a partnership, it is its own brand-oriented end-user services, with its own billing system, customer service number, marketing and management system. Since the issuance of the first virtual operators ' licences in 2013, Chinese consumers, in addition to the three major operators (telecommunications, Mobile, unicom), finally have more telecom operators to choose from.

However, if you use the 170th section of friends are very clear, the first time to install 170 card, the phone will still be on the screen to jump out of China Unicom/Telecom/mobile words. It is precisely such a small detail, it is obvious that the appearance of the virtual operators in the dilemma. The nominal operator, in fact, is simply a dependant agent. For consumers, it is only a choice of a package and a number of 170, so has been considered exaggerated "catfish effect" because of controlled, so it is not obvious.

Citing the view of a virtual carrier, we are in any case innovative, the basic network is always the three major operators. The two are not equal competition relations, but the upstream and downstream relationship of the business. Therefore, the virtual operator is "icing on the cake", serving the three major operators to take care of the place. As for "aggravating", not yet.

Consumer awareness of virtual business, silent landing

According to the "2014 Chinese virtual operator Customer Concern research Report" released by the media, the users ' understanding of the virtual operators is not enough. Among them, 22.8% of mobile phone users have heard but do not understand, 62.9% of mobile phone users do not know what the virtual operator is. Although at the beginning of the March 2014 170th, the virtual operators lively for a long time, can because of the change in time, the virtual operator after the landing of the sound becomes less and less, become a small group before the niche market spokesperson.

Although the virtual operator's package is very attractive, it is still not known because of the weakness of the publicity. The information released by the media is also a survey of mobile phone users in big cities, and it is true that in three-tier cities, individuals think that the data of the media will become more ugly. May even appear in some four line cities, the virtual operator's cognition rate is less than 10% possibility, but how can such low brand cognition rate make the virtual operators have the possibility to challenge to the big three?

User habits need to be nurtured

The world's greatest power is "habit", when the three giants in the domestic communications industry for decades after intensive cultivation, in order to suddenly appear in a few virtual operators, people really have the courage to go out that step into the embrace of virtual operators? When introducing virtual carrier packages to consumers, there are always a few problems:

1. Where do I pay the bill?

2, the card is broken where to fill?

3, do not want to be able to switch to Mobile/telecom/Unicom?

The top three most frequently occurring problems are precisely the drawbacks of virtual operators, there is no terminal entity, everything is virtual, and the situation will let consumers mistakenly understand the virtual operator as a package or brand of the three giants (such as Unicom's 3G brand "Wo"), So that consumers can not be recognized.

But the above points are small problems, the biggest problem is the habit. When people are used to choosing between the big three, it's hard to get used to it. and has been clamoring for years the transfer network has been stuck on the paper no substantial progress, so for the use of the same company's consumers can not understand, the same use for mobile/unicom/Telecom, but the replacement of a package is not to change the number of the problem.

As the saying goes, "Rome, Rome", now the big Three is like the ice in the frozen months, with a few small matches of heat really difficult to shake. The unequal competition, the operation of the people, and the low market cognition all affect the "catfish" of the virtual operator all the time, so give them some support, and one day we will see the ice-breaking moment.

(Responsible editor: Lvguang)