Vodafone aims to be fastest growing services company by 2025

WITH TRY 2BN IN INVESTMENT AND TRY 13.6 BN IN REVENUES IN 2020, VODAFONE TURKEY’S INVESTMENTS IN THE COUNTRY HAS EXCEEDED TRY 25BN OVER ITS 15-YEAR HISTORY. “OUR GOAL IS TO BECOME TURKEY’S FASTEST GROWING DIGITAL SERVICES COMPANY BY 2025,” VODAFONE TURKEY’S NEWLY-APPOINTED CEO SAYS.

IT HAS BEEN 15 YEARS SINCE Vodafone entered the Turkish market after purchasing Uzan Group’s indebted Telsim from the Saving Deposits Insurance Fund (TMSF). Since then the global telecom operator’s investments in Turkey have exceeded TRY 25bn, according to Vodafone Turkey’s newly-appointed CE•, Engin Aksoy. Taking the top job at the beginning of February as the company’s seventh CE•, Aksoy said the company invested nearly TRY 2bn in 2020 while its revenues from services reached TRY 13.6 bn. The number of customers they served was 24.6 million, he noted. “•ur goal is to become Turkey’s fastest growing digital services company by 2025. We have made our investment plans accordingly.”

In a meeting with a small group of journalists, organized by Aksoy with Hasan Suel, Deputy Chief Executive •fficer of Vodafone Turkey, the progress and future goals of the company was on the table. Here are the main highlights:

►A MODEL WITHIN THE GROUP

“In 2020, we gave a good account of ourself operationally and financially. The number of active monthly customers using our digital channels increased by 22% to over 16.3m while our service revenues reached TRY 13.6bn. We continued our investments and invested close to TRY 2bn in total in 2020 despite the difficult conditions. Both the steps we have taken towards digitalization and our financial performance are appreciated and was shown as a model within the group. Vodafone Turkey became the operator with the highest growth in service revenues within the Vodafone Group, according to third quarter figures.”

► ON BECOMING A HOLDING “We are taking steps towards becoming a digital marketplace and financial and insurance services provider by using the power of digitalization. We switched to a holding structure in order to increase our digitalization performance and support the growth of our new business areas. Vodafone Holding A.S. consists of 10 companies under 4 main verticals. Under our ‘Telecom’ vertical, there are Vodafone Telekom and Vodafone Net. We added Vodafone Tower Services to these two flagships this year. Under the ‘Services’ vertical, we have Vodafone Distribution, Vodafone Data and Vodafone Technology companies. Under the ‘Finance and Insurance’ vertical, we have Vodafone E-Para and Vodafone Insurance companies. The ‘TV and Media’ vertical consists of Vodafone TV and Vodafone Media companies. •ur goal is to further grow these companies by maintaining our focus on digital services.”

►A CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE “•ur goal is to position Turkey as a center for ex- cellence. We will continue to share our successful practices such as Supermarket and T•Bi with other countries. In addition, we decided to switch to a hybrid operating model in the post-pandemic period. With this model, we will create a flexible structure where it is possible to work both remotely and from the office.”

►FASTEST GROWING

“We aim to be the fastest growing digital services company in Turkay by 2025. We created a growth plan consisting of ‘Connectivity,

Vodafone Yanimda and Vodafone Business’ elements in order to achieve this goal. We will continue to improve our infrastructure with the latest technologies and provide our customers with the best digital experience. We will continue our investments to make Vodafone Yanimda a ‘super application’ that is used every day. With our Vodafone Business brand, we plan to grow exponentially for the next five years with our investments in a Data Center, Cloud Solutions, Cyber Security, Customized Mobile Network and IoT.”

►FREE CONSULTANCY TO SMES “We are preparing to implement an extensive support project for tradesmen and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The Digital Marketing Consultancy will be offered free of charge to all tradesmen and SMEs who want to benefit from our support package. We believe that SMEs will regain the customers and income potential they lost during pandemic with digital marketing tools that we can provide.”