Within the modern-day, cellular knowledge is sort of a necessity for shoppers as telephones grow to be a ubiquitous a part of our lives.
In response, many telcos in Singapore have begun providing bigger packets of information of their cellular plan choices to cater to data-heavy customers. Gone are the times the place knowledge choices had been denominated in megabytes; now they’re listed in gigabytes, which is a testomony to the significance of cellular knowledge for shoppers.
However as competitors for a way a lot knowledge shoppers get grew to become stale, one explicit telco started providing shoppers the choice of doing one thing totally different with their knowledge.
Based in 2019, Gorilla Networks married two ideas that appeared to don’t have anything to do with one another: cellular knowledge and cryptocurrency.
Founder and CEO Xanne Leo was impressed by how cellular plans in Singapore had been rigid, requiring customers to precisely predict their month-to-month utilization and knowledge consumption.
She resolved to have her telco provide customers a brand new sort of cellular plan — one that may enable customers to pay just for what they used, and convert the remainder into digital property like cryptocurrency and NFTs.
Globalising choices
Just lately, Gorilla Networks has been acquired by New York Inventory Alternate-listed Society Move (SoPa), a Vietnamese loyalty and data-focused advertising and marketing platform in Southeast Asia and South Asia.
Our proprietary blockchain know-how aligns nicely with SoPa’s acquisition technique. As we work in tandem with Society Move to include Gorilla’s blockchain and Web3 capabilities, we goal to allow a brand new meta financial system for our customers, alongside SoPa’s portfolio corporations.
– Xanne Leo, founder and CEO of Gorilla Networks
This acquisition is meant to leverage SoPa’s current platform and connections, and allow Gorilla Networks to broaden their buyer base into areas the place SoPa is energetic.
In response to Gorilla Networks, it plans to broaden their consumer base into Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia inside the subsequent 12 months.
“We selected these nations in view of SoPa’s in depth ecosystem and huge consumer base in SEA. As well as, SoPa operates Leflair.com, Vietnam’s main way of life e-commerce platform; Pushkart.ph, a preferred grocery supply firm in Philippines; and Handycart.vn, a number one on-line restaurant supply service based mostly in Hanoi, Vietnam,” she defined.
“By becoming a member of forces with SoPa’s in these areas, Gorilla is thrilled concerning the mixed advertising and marketing capabilities we’ll now convey collectively to our companions and clients. By way of Gorilla’s cutting-edge know-how, we search to tailor for an unprecedented expertise for the following era of shoppers in SEA and to allow a brand new meta financial system for our customers.”
As well as, Gorilla’s ambitions transcend simply participating extra clients within the area. They’re constructing themselves to grow to be a World Metaverse Connectivity Operator, which means that they goal to onboard conventional telcos into the metaverse, by means of their established Web3 ecosystem.
Shifting the telco ecosystem into Web3
Gorilla Networks has already confirmed their idea in its Web3 telecommunications capabilities with GSIM, which features as an eSIM preloaded with roaming cellular knowledge.
Their upcoming providing, the GLVT NFT, will act as Gorilla’s membership NFT and introduce what Web3 has to supply for these nonetheless on Web2 networks.
Gorilla Networks additionally has plans to introduce GMobile NFTs, in addition to SIMs, cellular knowledge plans and NFTs. These will perform as Gorilla’s on-chain connectivity objects to supply homeowners entry to cellular knowledge throughout the globe. Customers will even have the ability to high up their cellular knowledge to GMobile NFT, switch the NFT to a different pockets, and reissue new SIMs when wanted.
Telecommunication corporations have all the time been centralised, walled gardens the place customers shouldn’t have seamless entry to important telecommunication providers worldwide.
Customers don’t usually affiliate possession of SIMs, cellphone numbers, talktime, SMS, cellular knowledge and different community providers with true possession within the sense of freedom to commerce or switch.
– Xanne Leo, founder and CEO of Gorilla Networks
As such, Gorilla Community’s purpose is to innovate and enhance on what shoppers typically consider once they think about telcos. She desires to permit them to understand that they really personal their cellphone quantity, and make it a degree that SIMs and NFTs are actually simply an extension of their identities.
On the similar time, Gorilla Community can be acutely aware of their clients’ wants for privateness when coming into the NFT area, and is planning to function a Web3-native on-chain verification vouch with an off-chain trusted verification bridge. This is able to allow clients to be verified whereas protecting their on-chain id personal to different customers.
Whereas Gorilla Community has already made its mark in Singapore with its revolutionary strategy to cellular knowledge plans, it appears that evidently the corporate just isn’t but ready to easily maintain the place it has.
Gorilla Community has leveraged its fame and know-how, and might now aspire to be one thing larger than an area telco because it brings NFTs and the metaverse to abnormal clients not simply in Singapore, however all through the area.
Featured Picture Credit score: Gorilla Networks
