GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

ANALYSIS

Country overview: Sri Lanka

October 2013

© GSMA Intelligence gsmaintelligence.com/m4d • [email protected] • @GSMAi

Mobile for
Development Impact
 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

Contents

National Context................................................................................................................................... 1

Key Messages.........................................................................................................................................2

The Sri Lankan Mobile Market.......................................................................................................... 4

Small market, many players...................................................................................................................... 4
Smartphone ownership still low, but data is key.............................................................................. 6

Mobile for Development Landscape..............................................................................................10

Mobile for Development services growing....................................................................................... 10
Strong push from MNOs, grants and competitions nurturing the ecosystem.................... 10
Mobile for Development: the operator perspective (interview with Dialog CEO).............13
Sri Lanka – attractive for start-ups, still need financing...............................................................15

Appendix.............................................................................................................................................. 18

Glossary............................................................................................................................................... 22
 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

National Context

Sri Lanka is a small island nation covering approximately 66,000 km2 in the Indian Ocean,
offering access to Asia and the Middle East. The majority of its 21 million people live in
the rural areas; urban residents account for just 15% of total population. Government
investments in basic and Information Communication Technology (ICT) education have
ensured relatively high reading and ICT literacy rates. The World Bank has sponsored an
$83 million program, ‘e-Sri Lanka’, which seeks to improve access to ICT in the country
and enable the use of these technologies to aid economic and social development. The
e-Sri Lanka initiative has been implemented by the Information and Communications
Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka which has played a significant role in leading
government policies, launching ICT-related products and services, and in encouraging
entrepreneurship in this sector.

The 26-year long internal conflict, which officially ended in 2009, displaced economic
development away from the war-affected areas and exacerbated regional disparities in
income, employment and healthcare. The worst-affected regions in the North and Eastern
provinces are in need of socio-economic rehabilitation. Civil unrest also forced a number
of Sri Lankans to emigrate and despite the end of the conflict; many remain abroad for
economic reasons. The diaspora population is estimated to be three million and their
remittances are the second largest source of foreign exchange earnings for the country.

Sri Lanka’s $64 billion economy is poised for a steady economic rebound in the next three
to five years. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the economy expanded
6.4% in 2012 and is forecast to grow by 6.3% and 6.7% in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
The service sector accounts for almost 60% of the economy, while agriculture and
manufacturing also make significant contributions. There is a strong push to develop ICT
capabilities through investment in infrastructure and ICT education in order to position Sri
Lanka as a knowledge and outsourcing hub in order to bring in foreign revenue.
 

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

Key Messages

Fast growing mobile market, still headroom for more

Around 45-50% of people in Sri Lanka own a mobile phone now. Although this is higher
in comparison to South Asia (30%) and the developing world (40%), mobile ownership in
Sri Lanka is well below that in mature markets which typically see rates of 60-80%. Over
the last five years, subscriber growth in Sri Lanka has been driven by a combination of
three factors – (i) increasing household incomes, with GDP per capita increasing 12% per
year from 2009–12, (ii) expanded mobile network coverage with as much as 90% of the
population now covered by 2G networks and 70% by 3G, and (iii) increasing competition
between the mobile operators which has had a knock-on effect in lowering prices for
consumers.

There is still headroom for subscriber penetration in the country. On the face of it, the bulk
of this growth would come from closing the urban-rural divide - current mobile ownership
is around 53% in urban cities as compared to 42% in rural areas. Given that the majority
(85%) of the population resides outside of cities, even if rural ownership plateaued at
50%, this still implies an incremental rise of 1.2 million people based on current levels.
While coverage not-spots and digital literacy are barriers to this, we believe affordability,
especially in rural areas, also presents a considerable challenge. Rural households have
fewer income earners (1.7 versus 1.9 in cities) while their household incomes are 25% lower
than those in urban areas1.

Mobile data is the story

Although sales of smartphones are increasing, they account for just 10% of total handset
sales implying relatively low smartphone ownership in the installed base of mobile phone
users. Interestingly, mobile data use is rising - with over one million active mobile internet
users in the country2. Much of this increased internet access is coming from prepaid usage
on feature phones. Moreover, operators are designing short-term, flexible tariffs in order
to enable and promote mobile data among mid and low- income customer segments who
are otherwise unable or unwilling to enter monthly contracts.

Operators are also investing capex on networks to counter anticipated rises in data
traffic. Overall usage intensity (the amount of bandwidth consumed per data customer)
is generally lower in Sri Lanka than it is in developed markets – social networking is a
common use case in Sri Lanka as well. We expect this to grow with increasing utility of
the mobile internet, principally video-based applications such as You Tube etc. The pace of
change will depend on overcoming usage barriers for would-be data customers, including
costs of both handsets and airtime, as well as accessibility of locally relevant content.

Mobile for Development (M4D) is business, not CSR

Mobile for Development Intelligence (MDI) now tracks around 30 M4D services in Sri
Lanka – double the number three years ago. A majority of these services are led by mobile

1
Household income and expenditure survey – 2012/13, Department of Census and Statistics
2
Statistical Overview June 2013, Telecom Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

operators and operate in the health and education sectors. While M4D services are rooted
in social impact, there is an increasing shift in the mindset of operators towards investing
in value added services (VAS) as core business lines (Dialog is a case in point – see special
spotlight with Dialog Group’s CEO in the Mobile for Development Landscape section).
Direct revenue generation is one motivation, but we believe the more important reason is
to use these services as a tool to secure the loyalty of customers in an increasingly data-
led ICT world with competition from mobile operators and internet firms (namely Google
and Facebook).

This is not lost on policy makers. The government has been recognised for its high
emphasis on ICT innovation (with a duly strong standing on the impact of ICT on access
to basic services) and has improved on the international benchmark for the ease of doing
business (see appendix). However, venture capital availability remains low relative to
regional and developed world peers. The alignment of entrepreneur business models and
investor valuation criteria remains a barrier to the sustainability of what is now a budding
innovation hub.

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan Mobile Market

2011 2012 2013E

Market penetration, subscribers 41% 43% 46%

Unique subscribers (active, million) 8.6 9.3 9.9

Subscriber growth, annual 7% 8% 7%

Market penetration, connections 93% 105% 117%

SIMs per subscriber 1.95 2.02 2.07

ARPU, by subscriber $5.60 $6.10 -

ARPU growth, annual 4% 8% -

Service revenue, growth, annual 15% 16% -

EBITDA margin 36% 33% -

Table 1: Sri Lanka, key mobile indicators

Source: GSMA Intelligence, MDI analysis

Mobile network operators launch timeline

1988 1989 1993 1995 2004 2006 2009 2010 2013

Launch of Launch Launch Launch of Launch Celltell

Celltell (now of of Hutchinson of Bharti rebranded from
Etisalat) Mobitel Dialog Telecommunications Airtel Tigo to Etisalat
Axiata Lanka Lanka following acquisition
by Etisalat in 2009
First Dialog Dialog
telecom launches launches
license first 3G first 4G
issued to network in network in
Celltell Sri Lanka Sri Lanka

Small market, many players

The mobile space is occupied by five operators including a state owned provider (Mobitel).
Dialog remains the largest player with around a third of the market, although this has
weakened over the last three years, largely due to competition from Etisalat and Hutchison
(see Figure 1). Indeed, the overall market is more competitive than many of its regional
peers (see Figure 2), which is enhanced given the relatively small population of around 21
million.

100% 4% 6% 8% 8% 8% 7%
10% 14% 8% 9%
6% 10% 13% 14%
26% 20% 17% 18%
80% 16% 15% 17%
12% 19% 20% 21%
13% Airtel (Bharti Airtel)
10% 16%
60% 18% 24%
24% Hutch (Hutchison)
23% 23% 23% Etisalat
40% 63% Mobitel (Sri Lanka Telecom)
61% 57%
59% 53% Dialog
50%
45% 39%
20% 36% 35%

0%
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Figure 1: Operator market share evolution (connections)

Source: GSMA Intelligence, MDI analysis
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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

China 4,889 The HHI is a measure of

competition: it takes the
Bangladesh 2,853 sum of the squared market
share held by each mobile
Indonesia 2,804 operator in a country, giving
a maximum country value of
UK 2,680 10,000

Sri Lanka 2,430 Higher values indicate a

larger concentration of
India 1,374 share held by one or two
operators, which generally
0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000
indicates a lower level of
High Low competition
competition competition

Figure 2: Herfindahl–Hirschman Index of competition, Q2 2013

Source: GSMA Intelligence, MDI analysis

Mobile revenue growth has grown healthily at around 16% over the last several quarters,
with this now driven both by new subscribers and firmer prices (see Figure 3). The spectre
of price wars has been absent over the last year, although the market has in the past been
prone to these; during 2008–2010, downward pressure on tariffs led to a fall in profits and
a decline in investments for the industry as a whole. In order to ensure quality and fair
competitiveness, the telecoms regulator, Telecom Regulatory Commission, introduced a
minimum floor for on-net charges as well as fixed interconnection charges.

30%

20%

10% Subscriber growth

ARPU growth
0%
Revenue growth
-10% (Year-on-year)

-20%
Price wars
(detail)
-30%
Jun 09
Sep 09
Dec 09
Mar 10
Jun 10
Sep 10
Dec 10
Mar 11
Jun 11
Sep 11
Dec 11
Mar 12
Jun 12
Sep 12
Dec 12

Figure 3: What drives mobile revenue growth?

Source: GSMA Intelligence, MDI analysis
Note: Revenue growth corresponds to recurring (e.g. service) revenue
Subscribers correspond to unique subscribers rather than total number of SIMs, i.e. connections

After a period of declines, growth in active subscribers has stabilised since 2011. Mobile
penetration on an ownership basis has still not reached 50% nationally, and there remains
a large urban-rural divide, with rural areas – 85% of the country’s population – largely
untapped despite having relatively good coverage (see Figures 4 and 5). The end of the
civil war has released pent up, yet largely unfulfilled demand from the war-affected North
and East provinces which account for around 14% of the country’s population.

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

30% 90% 85%

Sri Lanka Mobile penetration
India 80% Residents
25%
70%

% of population
20% 60% 53%
50%
15% 42%
40%
10% 30%
20% 15%
5%
10%
0% 0%
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013E Urban Rural

Figure 4: Growth in active subscribers Figure 5: Mobile penetration: urban vs. rural
Source: GSMA Intelligence, MDI analysis Source: GSMA Intelligence, MDI analysis

Note: Mobile penetration refers to unique subscribers (lower than on a connection/SIM basis)

Smartphone ownership still low, but data is key

Mobile data is the story

An increasing number of Sri Lankans are beginning to use their mobile phones to access
the internet. Since 2009, mobile internet users have almost doubled each year, reaching
over 1 million during the first quarter of 2013 (Figure 6). We expect this trend to accelerate
over the next two to three years based on the government’s emphasis on IT literacy, use
of short term/flexi options catering to lower income customers unable to commit to a
contract (see below), and sustained marketing by telecom operators seeking to establish
data as a strong source of revenue.

Mobile internet users

Active mobile subscribers 3.0
Smartphone
10 15% Feature phone
Handset shipments (millions)

9%
2.5
8 12%
2.0 5%
% of mobile

6 9%
Million

1.5
91%
4 6% 95%
1.0

2 3% 0.5

0 0% 0
2009 2010 2011 2012 Q1 2013 2011 2012

Figure 6: Active subscribers and internet users Figure 7: Handset shipments

Source: GSMA Intelligence, Telecom Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka,
Sri Lanka Mobile Handset Market Review 2011-12, CyberMedia Research

Note: Figure 7 shows handsets tracked by CyberMedia Research in its Mobile Handset Market Review 2011–12. Handsets traded on the ‘grey’
market are outside of that analysis and are estimated to account for 18% of the handset market.

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

In the handset space, feature phones continue to account for the vast majority (over 90%)
of shipments (see Figure 7). Smartphones are rising, but the time taken for the handset
replacement cycle means that their share in the actual user base is lower (perhaps 5%).
Samsung and Nokia are the largest handset players in feature phones and smartphones
(together making up around 50% of sales), with a long tail of feature phone makers
comprising the remainder (see Figure 8).

Other feature phone Nokia smartphone

49% 2%
Feature phone
Nokia feature phone 91%
28%

Smartphone
Samsung smartphone 9%
4%
Samsung feature phone
Other smartphone 14%
3%

Figure 8: Handset sales share (2012)

Source: Sri Lanka Mobile Handset Market Review 2011-12, CyberMedia Research

Note: Figure 8 shows handsets tracked by CyberMedia Research in its Mobile Handset Market Review 2011–12. Handsets traded on the ‘grey’
market are outside of that analysis and are estimated to account for 18% of the handset market.

Looking ahead, we expect smartphone adoption to continue rising, driven by falling device
prices, increasing 3G coverage (see Figure 9) and operator marketing. Indeed, Dialog
launched two own-brand budget smartphones in 2012 running on Android at sub-$100
price points. Operator investment is targeted on networks to pre-empt the rise in traffic
associated with more users and higher intensity usage (mainly video – see Dialog’s capex
intensity, Figure 10).

....
2G 3G

Figure 9: Network coverage - Hutchison (2G) and Mobitel (3G)

Source: GSMA, Collins Bartholomew

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

29%
150 30%
25%

100 17% 20%

15%
$ million

50 10%

0 0%
2009 2010 2011 2012

Figure 10: Capex evolution (mobile operations), Dialog Sri Lanka

Source: GSMA Intelligence, company reports, MDI analysis

Consumers are using data on short-term flexi tariffs

Current mobile internet penetration implies that at least half of the population is accessing
the internet through feature phones. As with many regional peers, mobile represents the
gateway to the internet for most of the population given the relatively low use of fixed
broadband. Operators recognise this as a crucial lock-in mechanism, and are directing
efforts focused on creating a locally valued data application ecosystem by encouraging
developers to launch a variety of VAS hosted on their networks (see Section 2: Mobile for
Development (M4D) landscape).

Sri Lanka (along with many other developing markets) has aligned mobile data access
to the handset landscape (mostly feature phones), digital literacy (‘SpotTheVanLK’, a
marketing campaign launched by Etisalat, involves a mobile van of ‘internet experts’ which
tours the country to answer any questions about internet, smartphones and mobile apps)
and the buying power of mid and lower income customers unable or unwilling to commit
to monthly contract expenditures. In other words, the use of pre-pay mobile data is itself a
conduit to smartphones as real incomes rise and device prices fall. We estimate that around
75% of people using data do so on prepaid plans, with many of these accessing the internet
by the day or hour (see Figures 11 and 12). The use of flexi plans has also become common,
where an individual can, say, purchase 5 hours of time on the mobile internet that can be
used at any point over a 5 day period. Lastly, the use of zero-rated offers has come into play
in partnership with internet firms. Here, customers are given free access to a limited part
of the internet, with browsing or activity beyond this charged (one example is Wikipedia
offered by Dialog).

In many ways, this is the opposite of the European and US story. Operators attempted, and
mostly failed, to create walled gardens of content through the 2000s before smartphones
became mainstream; over the last 5 years the mobile internet and more open content
ecosystems have become a de facto use case for smartphones, with most of this on
contract plans – in other words, user-centric smartphones – starting with the iPhone – were
the gateway to mobile data.

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

6 4
Data offerings for less
5 than 1 day (flexi, see 3
Figure 12)

4 3
Price ($)

Price ($)
3 2

2 2
Flexi-style tariffs are common

1 1

0 0
0 10 20 30 0 6 12 18 24
Duration of usage (days) Duration of usage (days)

Figure 11: Mobile data tariff landscape Figure 12: Short term/flexi data tariffs
Source: Operator websites (as of 21 August 2013), $1 = 131.9 LKR

Note: Data tariffs generally include a bundle of data that can be used for mobile internet browsing, watching video or both

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

Mobile For Development Landscape

Mobile for development services growing

Overall, the number of M4D service offerings has steadily increased during the last few
years, with over 30 services now tracked by the MDI Products and Services tracker (see
Figure 13). Health and learning related services account for the largest share with around
two thirds. Identity (e.g. GovSMS) and agriculture-related offerings (primarily mobile
services that provide live crop prices to farmers in remote areas) each make up around 10%
(see Figure 14)3.

30
Others
25 15%
Number of products

Health
32%
and services

20 Agri
9%
15

Identity
10
12%

5
Learning
32%
0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Figure 13: M4D evolution Figure 14: Sector comparison*

Source: MDI analysis Source: MDI analysis

* Based on number of M4D services in Sri Lanka, not on the number of customers using them
Note: Other services include mobile money, entrepreneurship & work, disaster response, NFC and green powered networks

Strong push from MNOs, grants and competitions nurturing the ecosystem

The majority (around 70%) of the products and services in Sri Lanka tracked by MDI are
led by mobile network operators (MNOs) (see Figures 15 and 16). We believe this to be
reflective of their push towards developing an ecosystem of VAS to differentiate their
mobile services offering and promote data usage. Multiple operators in Sri Lanka offer
a 70:30 revenue share in favour of the developer (similar to the app developer model
employed by Apple and Google), an important hook in attracting talented entrepreneurs
and developers to partner with operators. In a different part of the ecosystem, aspiring
developers and university students are encouraged to showcase their creativity through
regular competitions and technical training sessions (Sri Lanka has consistently sent the
highest number of developers to Google Summer Code, a competitive program for students
worldwide with an interest in software development, since its launch in 2005).

Operators are increasingly attracted to good business opportunities that also have the
potential to generate social impact. In March 2013, Mobitel partnered with the Open

3
Note that the size of an M4D sector here is based on the number of services, as opposed to the number of
subscribers or any financial metric (for which reported data is sparse)

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

University of Sri Lanka to promote financial literacy among rural women from farming
communities. Weekly lessons are provided through an Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
system followed by an assessment. Jean Fernandez, Senior General Manager, Customer
Care, at Mobitel states that this programme will “help empower women from rural farming
communities and add value to their daily work.”

Software Development Vendor

Government/ 9%
Regulatory/
Association India
9%
Non mobile
operator led
NGO/
Mobile Mobile operator
Development
Network led
Organisation/
Operator
Donor Sri Lanka
70%
12%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Figure 15: M4D product & services leader organisations Figure 16: MNO-led products & services
Source: MDI analysis Source: MDI analysis

Despite its small market size, Sri Lanka has a relatively large number of M4D services
compared to other fast growing developing countries (see Figure 17). While its mobile
penetration (43%) is broadly on a par with the Philippines (46%), and Peru (50%), M4D
services are more numerous in Sri Lanka than these comparator peers once corrected for
size of the mobile market. This, of course, is not indicative of the number of customers
using M4D services (for which there remains relatively little reported data). However, it
does suggest there is a strong appetite among operators and entrepreneurs to invest in
mobile-enabled services. The challenge is transitioning from growth in volume to growth in
scale with sustainable customer bases.

At a sector level, much of this is focused on the mobile health and education sectors
(with government placing a high emphasis on ICT literacy). Mobile money services are
conspicuously underrepresented, with only one, eZ Cash4 offered by Dialog, currently in
the market, although we believe this to be more a product of the timeline for regulatory
approval than lack of interest among operators (we understand two operators are planning
to launch mobile money services within the next several months). Most of Sri Lanka’s
population lives in rural areas, with around 40% of adults either lacking a bank account or
being inactive users of one (underbanked). A similar story holds for urban areas (see Figure
18). In both cases while there are mobile subscribers that will have existing bank accounts,
mobile money can be offered to those that have mobile but not financial access, and to
those with neither, using this as a draw to own a mobile itself.

4
See a case study by GSMA’s Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

10

7.5
8 Other*
Learning
6 Agriculture
Health
3.7
4 3.3 Money

2 1.1
0.6 0.5
0.3
0
Kenya S. Africa Sri Lanka Peru Phillipines India Brazil

Figure 17: M4D services per million mobile unique subscribers

Source: MDI Products and Services tracker, MDI analysis

* Includes mobile-enabled services to disaster response, energy access, employment and green-powered
networks (business facing)

Note: Figures are derived from the number of products and services as tracked by MDI and the number of mobile unique subscribers
calculated by GSMA Intelligence. The tracker is open to sampling bias geographically and by sector, and as such we make no claim to
represent 100% of the M4D services in operation

Unbanked/underbanked
Mobile subscribers (active)

10

6
Million

0
Urban Rural
Figure 18: An opportunity for mobile money?
Source: World Bank, MDI analysis

Note: Unbanked/underbanked figures are for adults age 15 or over (2011), mobile subscribers are totals (2012)

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

Mobile for Development: the operator perspective

Special feature: In conversation with Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya,

Group CEO, Dialog

How do you understand the term ‘Mobile for development’, and how is this relevant to
Dialog’s organisational structure and activity?

“The techno-economics that underpin modern connectivity technologies in general

and mobile telephony in particular, have enabled the related technologies to act as
transformational vehicles with the potential to deliver socioeconomic parity in emerging
markets. Dating back to 1995, Dialog viewed mobile telephony as having immense potential
to transform livelihoods by providing affordable and accessible connectivity, not only
in terms of peer-to-peer communication but also as a digital bridge that could alleviate
asymmetries in information, commerce, and knowledge. Spurred on by a series of positive
outcomes in the form of sustainable business returns as well as larger socioeconomic
dividends delivered via mobile telephony in Sri Lanka, Dialog has remained enthused and
convinced that ICTs can indeed transform lives, livelihoods, and businesses, provided they
are applied with close adherence to underlying principles of inclusion. In keeping with the
potentially transformative role they could play in the development of nations, we see ICTs
in their broadest context, including but not limited to being drivers of multi sector inclusion,
globalization, electronic commerce and trade, efficient government, and plurality in access
to broader opportunity and fundamental rights.”

How much of your core business is represented by services we would call M4D services?

“In terms of direct contribution to topline M4D is still relatively small; however the attribution
of incremental revenue through a M4D service that drives affinity and applicability among
base of the pyramid user segments is more significant. This is still hard to measure and the
metrics around attribution are very nascent. We continue to rely on consumer insight data
to build attribution evidence to support scaling up investment across areas that present an
opportunity for mobile intervention.”

Do you think that there is an issue here with the apparent disconnect between the
developmental benefit of a given service and the revenue that the company generates?

“I feel that investments in applicability and relevance of M4D services, will deliver financial
outcomes which are (a) more sustainable, and (b) more impactful from the view point of
attribution through customer retention, mindshare and multiplier effects. A dollars and cents
evaluation of this model is not dissimilar to the approach we adopt when valuing the equity
of a Brand, and the returns on Brand Investments. Brand investments generate affinity and
loyalty, so do investments in applicability and relevance, and even more so, investments in
services which are life enhancing and developmental at an individual or societal level. Going
back a decade, one might argue that the returns on such investments are both long term in
nature as well as tenuous in terms of derivation. I believe this is no longer the case, affinity
dividends are seen in the shorter term, and the attribution connectors that we can draw are
far more deterministic.
With particular reference to mobile money and payments, we believe we have bridged
the principal hurdle of bridging affinity gaps, and proving relevance to the community.

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

Accordingly we believe that we are now at the cusp of converting affinity and developmental
value appreciation into the actualization of inclusive shared value delivery. We believe the
immediate developmental multiplier of mobile money would be the emergence of cross-
segment e and m commerce and downstream trade interchange. I believe this multiplier
would also spawn the creation and adoption of context-sensitive mobile apps that target
the base of the pyramid.”

What do you see as the most promising M4D services in terms of business models?

“I would look at the gaps country-by-country. In a community or a country where there

are asymmetries, if you pick the three most impactful asymmetries, and if you can bridge
those three asymmetries using mobile, those would be the top three M4D services. In
most emerging markets, including Sri Lanka these asymmetries are electronic transaction
infrastructure, parity education, and the immediacy of health services. Taking the first of
these for example, many emerging market consumers have no ability to transact on the
internet because they are not empowered with an electronic payment instrument. This
means that the Internet has limited relevance to such segments in terms of its transactional
capacity. We believe that bridging these gaps will accelerate the transition from enablement
to actualization of ‘inclusive development’.”

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka ­— growing start-up ecosystem, still needs financing

The small geographic spread of the island allows for manageable roll-out of infrastructure,
and reduces the cost of marketing and distribution of new products. A relatively small
population of 21 million, which is increasingly becoming ICT savvy, also provides a good
sample size to test commercial viability of products and services. Four out of five MNOs in
Sri Lanka have a strong global footprint, creating the opportunity for them as well as their
partners to pilot products in the Sri Lankan market with the potential of expanding to their
global counterparts (see Start-up Spotlight on Square Mobile). Partnership with MNOs can
also enable NGOs to pilot their social enterprise work and scale to a larger community (see
spotlight on Sarvodaya-Fusion). At the policy level, this has been helped by an increasingly
business-friendly environment, with Sri Lanka recognised for its relatively high emphasis on
ICT and having improved its standing on the ease of doing business (see appendix). A key
constraining factor remains the availability of venture capital (VC) financing, with a need
for closer alignment between entrepreneur business models and the risk criteria applied to
investment decision making by VCs and other investors (although we are beginning to see
an uptick in activity including the launch of one of Sri Lanka’s first early stage VC funds,
Venture Engine and its offshoot, Lanka Angel Network in 2012).

Start-up Spotlight: In Conversation with Tharindu Dassanayake,

CEO, Square Mobile

Product name and sector: Word Puzzle, mLearning

Year Launched: 2011
Business Model: B2B
Targeted Device: Basic/Feature phone, Smartphone
Primary Delivery Technology: SMS
Products & Services: Education, Entertainment
Markets Deployed In: Asia, Africa
Estimated Number of Users: 5000 in Sri Lanka, 12000 in Nigeria

Word Puzzle is an interactive SMS based service which aims to improve the users English
language vocabulary. The service is developed by a Sri Lankan start-up, Square Mobile and
is currently offered through Etisalat in Sri Lanka and Nigeria. The first tri-lingual offering of
its kind in Sri Lanka, Word Puzzle offers service delivery in two local languages Singhalese
and Tamil. The service records each user’s response to vocabulary based questions and
then ranks users in comparison to other players. This creates healthy competition and
provides an incentive to learning.

Progress since launch:

What’s the story behind the Word Puzzle app and Square Mobile?
I developed Word Puzzle when I was in second year of college at University of Peradeniya.
The idea came by chance when I participated in Etisalat’s Appzone Champions competition
in March 2011 and won the intra-university level. I was interested in their workshops on app
development and decided to participate. The success of Word Puzzle after the competition
boosted my entrepreneurial spirit and the exposure I received through the competition
events led me to launch Square Mobile. Recently, the growth of smartphone penetration
and mobile app development has been strong in Sri Lanka. The youth are keen to own a

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

smartphone and are buying new phones more frequently. So faster technology adoption is
creating more business opportunities for companies like Square Mobile.

Scalability
How is this service being scaled to reach a larger audience?
Since our launch in 2011, we have increased our Sri Lankan subscriber base to 5000. We have
been using LinkedIn to find and connect with potential partners abroad. Through LinkedIn,
we found IntoMobile and partnered with them to launch operations in Nigeria in February
this year. In Nigeria we are adding almost 300 subscribers per day and expect around
100,000 users in the next six months. We are scaling our business; we have expanded our
team by three members and are moving into a new office in Colombo next year.

Partnerships
What is the value of partnerships, particularly MNO’s? What support did you receive from
operators?
Sri Lanka proved to be a good launch pad for us. We started locally but we were always
thinking of scale, and the global context. After our success at home, it was easier for us to
launch the product in Nigeria. The Nigerian telco industry is boosting up now, so they are
thirsty for value added services and feature phones are the most prevalent devices there.
This means there is a good chance for SMS/WAP services like ours. We have partnered
with IntoMobile in Nigeria and the product is hosted by Etisalat Nigeria. In Nigeria, Etisalat
is providing free bulk promotion of our service amongst their subscriber base, whereas
in Sri Lanka we have to pay for such mass marketing campaigns. We are also in talks to
launch Word Puzzle in South Africa.

Looking back, looking forward

What are the internal and external challenges you have faced?
We faced some issues in setting up partnership agreements because we did not have
any legal expertise. Lawyers are not only expensive but very hard to find for our field
of operation (IT and communication). However, getting initial funding was the biggest
challenge. There are very few funding opportunities in Sri Lanka. We raised some initial
money from our friends and family, and since then the revenue from Word Puzzle has
helped us sustain operations. We also got $5000 from ICTA’s Spiralation competition to
develop a travel app. Before we were selected by ICTA it was hard to find mentors. There
is no ecosystem for start-ups in Sri Lanka yet. But the market is opening up and there will
more opportunities in the future.

What is the future of mobile for development services in Sri Lanka?

The education system in Sri Lanka is evolving. When I was in school, IT courses were
not compulsory and there were no IT teachers either. Now the government has trained
teachers to achieve their IT literacy target of 75% and made IT courses compulsory for
every student. This is creating more interest in ICT in the country.

In the last two years, mobile developers have become interested in developing applications
in the local context. Earlier there was no local language support for Android mobiles, but
Sri Lankan developers overcame the problem and now there are more mobile apps in
native languages. This is a good foundation for the mobile app industry in Sri Lanka.

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 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

Spotlight: Sarvodaya-Fusion, NGO. In conversation with Dr. Harsha

Liyanage, Isura Silva, Udara Dharmasena

What do you do at Sarvodaya-fusion?

We are a not-for-profit organisation with a mission of e-Empowerment of communities
all around Sri Lanka, operating as a specialised program of a 54-year-old national charity
called Sarvodaya. We operate as a social enterprise pursuing Social and Economic (double)
bottom lines. One of our ventures, Fusion Education, is a package including examinations, a
web seminar, an online assessment tool, and a certificate of completion that is run through
telecentres in Sri Lanka. This is a product that customers pay for (the package costs 1,900
SLR), is something the corporates buy into to support their CSR objectives (e.g. Microsoft
and HSBC), but also something that we can own. We have 1,400 users completing this
per year, and we turn a profit on this product. On the mobile front, our projects are still at
a prototype testing stage where we are pursuing business models that can emulate the
success of Fusion Education.

How is your social enterprise work related to mobile operators, and what is the value to
them of partnering with you?
Mobile operators are looking for new ways of approaching rural customers, as this is different
from customers in cities – a now largely a saturated market. The barrier for operators here
is in understanding the rural communities and their traditions. While Sarvodaya has been
working in the ICT sector since 1997, it has existed as a national charity for 54 years and
has strong links within rural communities. This deep understanding and network within
communities is the value we can bring to the operators. Very few NGOs are working on a
social enterprise model, and the prospect of building business models in line with those
of corporates is a big opportunity for us. The challenge is that we must ensure we don’t
invalidate the trust we have built up for many generations in these rural communities. It’s
also important to remember that this technology will move to the communities with or
without us. We believe, with our involvement, we can influence the quality and content of
those mobile products that will improve their social impact and sustainability.

Can you describe your experience working with mobile operators?

Sarvodaya-Fusion has experience working with two leading mobile operators, Dialog
Axiata and Etisalat Sri Lanka. In the case of Etisalat, we found common ground in Android.
Sarvodaya-Fusion had earlier experience, in 2011, with a project that shared Android Smart
Devices within poor communities in order to improve their awareness and interaction with
social media. This experience connected with Etisalat, who identified their new strategic
projects with the Android platform. We agreed to form Android Village hubs: a collection of
rural families in a village, where they learn about smart devices, social media and apps. Here
Android tablets are being used by families in a pre-agreed time period for their livelihood
purposes. As a CSR project, Etisalat provides the tablets and other resources to carry out
the project, while Sarvodaya-Fusion implement training and monitoring activities. The
project has influenced Etisalat’s investment decisions into rural communities, especially in
terms of 3G coverage. Both parties believe this will improve the broadband internet uptake,
which will help e-Empowerment. Etisalat’s CEO has been personally involved in brokering
the partnership, and was also open to a non-exclusive partnership model that allowed for
operator/network neutrality. Given the successful outcomes generated by our pilot project,
we are now scaling this up into ten communities.

17
 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

Appendix

Relevant groups and organisations:

Government bodies • Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA)

and trade associations: •S ri Lanka Association of Software & Service Companies
(SLASSCOM)
•C eylon Chamber of Commerce (ICT Steering Committee)
•S ri Lanka Board of Investment

Business and • SparkIT

entrepreneurship • Spiralation
competitions: • Venture Engine (VE) Competition
• Etisalat AppZone Champions
• Etisalat Android Challenge
• National Best Quality ICT Awards (NBQSA)
• Sri Lankan Entrepreneur of the Year
• Youth Enterprise Awards
• MIT AITI (Hosted by University of Moratuwa)

Angels and venture • Lanka Angel Network

capital: • Blue Ocean Ventures (BOV)

Data: regulation, business, demographics and economics

Sri Lanka India Bangladesh UK

ICT regulation (1 = nonexistent,

4.4 4.4 3.0 5.4
7 = well developed)

Government emphasis on ICT (1 = weak

5.5 5.1 5.0 5.6
priority, 7 = high priority)

Table 2: Sri Lanka, government and regulation

Source: Global ICT report 2011, World Economic Forum, Transparency International

18
 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

2011 Sri Lanka India Bangladesh UK

Venture capital availability(1 = very dif-

2.8 3.4 2.3 3.4
ficult; 7 = very easy)*

Impact of ICT on new products,services &

business models (1 = not at all; 7 = signifi- 4.8 5.0 4.0 5.9
cantly)*

Impact of ICT on access to basicservices

(1 = do not enable accessat all, 7 = enable 4.7 4.4 3.9 5.4
access)*

Corruption Perception Index 2012 (0=

40 36 26 74
highly corrupt, 100 = highly clean)

Ease of doing business rank** 96 132 129 7

Business entry density rate 0.58 0.09 0.10 10.41

Number of days to start a business 7 27 19 13

Table 3: Sri Lanka, business environment and entrepreneurship

Source: Global ICT report 2011, World Economic Forum (*2011, **2012)

2013 2012
Topic Change
rank rank

Overall ranking 81 96 15 ⬆
Starting a business 33 71 38 ⬆
Dealing with construction permits 112 116 4 ⬆
Getting electricity 103 104 1 ⬆
Registering property 143 164 21 ⬆
Getting credit 70 80 10 ⬆
Protecting investors 49 46 -3 ⬇
Paying taxes 169 175 6 ⬆
Trading across borders 56 54 -2 ⬇
Enforcing contracts 133 134 1 ⬆
Resolving insolvency 51 49 -2 ⬇

Table 4: Sri Lanka, ease of doing business, by topic

Source: World Ease of Doing Business Rankings

19
 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

2011 Sri Lanka South Asia OECD

Population (million) 21 1,600 1,200

Urban population (%) 15% 31% 80%

Literacy rate* 91% 62% 98%

Median age (years) 31.1 25.0 38.0

Mobile penetration, connections 93% 71% 114%

Mobile penetration, subscribers 41% 27% 72%

Table 5: Sri Lanka, demographic data

Source: GSMA Intelligence, MDI analysis, World Bank (*2010)

Agriculture
33%
Services
42.8%

Industries
24.1%

Figure 19: Employed population, by industry group (2011)

Source: Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka

2011 Sri Lanka South Asia OECD

GDP growth 8.2% 6.1% 1.5%

GNI per capita $5,520 $3,315 $35,141

FDI (% of GDP) 2% 2% 2%

Unemployment* 5% 4% 8%

Inflation 7% 9% 3%

Table 6: Sri Lanka, economic data

Source: MDI analysis, World Bank (*2010)

20
 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

GDP Growth Unemployment Real Interest Rate Inflation CP

10 10 10 25
9 9 9

Inflation Consumer Prices (%)

8 8 8 20
Real GDP Growth (%)

Real Interest Rate (%)

Unemployment (%)
7 7 7
6 6 6 15
5 5 5
4 4 4 10
3 3 3
2 2 2 5
1 1 1
0 0 0 0
-1 -1 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011
-2 -2
2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011

Figure 20: Sri Lanka, ecnomic data

Source: MDI analysis, World Bank

21
 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

Glossary

ICT regulation
How would you assess your country’s laws relating to the use of information and communi-
cation technologies (e.g., electronic commerce, digital signatures, consumer protection)?
Key: 1 = nonexistent; 7 = well developed, 2010–2011 weighted average.

Government emphasis on ICT

How much priority does the government in your country place on information and com-
munication technologies? Key: 1 = weak priority; 7 = high priority, 2010–2011 weighted
average.

Venture capital availability

In your country, how easy is it for entrepreneurs with innovative but risky projects to find
venture capital? Key: 1 = very difficult; 7 = very easy, 2010-2011 weighted average.

Impact of ICT on new products, services and business models

To what extent are information and communication technologies creating new business
models, services, and products in your country? Key: 1=not at all; 7 = significantly, 2010–
2011 weighted average.

Impact of ICT on access to basic services

To what extent are information and communication technologies enabling access for all
citizens to basic services (health, education, financial services, etc.) in your country? Key:
1 = do not enable access at all, 7 = enable access significantly, 2010–2011 weighted aver-
age.

Business entry density rate

Recurring (service) revenue generated in the period, including revenue generated from
the use of the network (voice, messaging, data, VAS), but excluding non-recurring reve-
nue such as handset or equipment revenue.

Unique, active subscribers

Total unique users who have subscribed to mobile services at the end of the period,
excluding M2M. Subscribers differ from connections such that a unique user can have
multiple connections.

Subscriber penetration rate

Total subscribers at the end of the period, expressed as a percentage share of the total
market population.

ARPU, by subscriber
Average revenue per user (ARPU). Total recurring (service) revenue generated per
unique subscriber per month in the period. Different from ARPU by connection, ARPU by
subscriber is a measure of each unique user’s spend.

22
 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

About GSMA Intelligence

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For more information, visit gsmaintelligence.com/about/

 GSMA Intelligence Country Overview: Sri Lanka

About the authors

Neha Jain — Analyst

Neha joined GSMA Intelligence in early 2013, after having spent over
4 years as an economic researcher at organizations such as Deloitte,
Government of India and Harvard Business School. Neha has a keen
interest in telecom and M4D trends in developing markets. Neha holds
a BA (Honours) degree in Economics from Delhi University, India and a
Master’s degree in Economics from Boston University, USA.

Tim Hatt — Senior Analyst

Tim is the head of research for emerging markets at GSMA Intelligence,

having joined the group in October 2012. In this capacity, Tim has
responsibility for the team producing research reports and presenting
externally at conferences and public speaking engagements. Prior to
joining the GSMA, Tim spent 6 years in London as an analyst covering
telecoms and a variety of other sectors.

Adam Wills — Analyst

Adam joined GSMA in November 2012. His responsibilities on ‘Scaling

Mobile’ included leading on multiple report sections, presenting
work to external stakeholders in Africa, and conducting interviews
to generate a range of supporting case studies. Prior to GSMA Adam
conducted policy research in an MP’s parliamentary office, with a focus
on environment and international development.

 mobiledevelopmentintelligence.com • [email protected] • @GSMAm4d

gsmaintelligence.com • [email protected] • @GSMAi

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