Hi All,
Yesterdays “Flexiroam App” thread on the NOR forum frustrated me… And now some of the Threads over here are frustrating me too… You would think that if people had the opportunity to get onto the next NOR that they would do the best research they could.
1. The Products
Flexiroam offer two core products. One is the SIM Paste, the other is The Flexiroam App.
These are two separate products. You don’t need the Sim/Sim paste to make use of the App features and you don’t need the app to make use of the SIM Paste features. Some feature do span between the two.
Initially they began by selling SIMs with their own roaming plans.
They then realised that people didn’t like having to change sims all the time so they came up with SIM Paste. A thin film that is applied to your existing SIM and automatically switches over when you are in roaming territory… An innovation in itself.
Now, they have the Flexiroam App.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO CHANGE SIM CARDS TO USE THIS. It provides low rate calls to mobiles, land lines, and free app to app calling. It also allows rental of local numbers. Everything NOR does and more (free app to app calling and android already). I’ve downloaded it and try it. I suggest you all do the same.
2. Stores
NOR currently processes all in app transactions through the apple appstore. And have hinted that they will do the same. This means they will be passing up 30% of all revenue.
Apple Appstore:
Google Play:
Flexiroam Processes all payments through Paypal for its app. Which means they only have to pay up to 1.1% +30c per transaction…. So Flexiroam only have to sell ~71-75% of the volume that NOR does to have the same revenue. OR they could reduce their prices by ~25-30% and capture more market.
Paypal:
But that’s not all… On the 7 July 2015 Flexiroam entered into agreement with Paypal AND entered into The Startup Blueprint program which provides FLEXIROAM with free payment processing for up to a transaction value of US$1.5 million with PayPal and US$100,000 with Braintree (mobile payment) fees for 18 months…
3. Comparing Revenues
We have no way to value between the two. Flexiroam haven’t released any info on the downloads/revenues of the app because it’s not released yet. So Stop Trying!
What we do know is without the app, purely with their SIM and SIM paste offerings; they reported being $595k away from an operating profit. I repeat… no app revenues here…
Let’s see where this goes when app revenues start coming in..
4. Size of the Market
Yes, at this stage, Flexiroam is very heavily focussed on Asia. But that’s fine by me while NOR is going viral. There’s no point trying to highlight competition in people’s minds when your still growing (I say growing but their app is still being born). Better to establish a presence in an isolated market to support growth into the competitive areas.
Things to have in mind: their current offerings have been sold and marketed out of kiosks in Asian airports like KL etc… Despite shipping online sales of the SIM and SIM Paste I doubt they distributed much outside of Asia. The app is their first, truly global product which we hope would be taken up pretty quickly by the current subscribers of their SIMS/Paste, or even those who were thinking about it (not sure what kind of lead base they would have but people are aware of the flexiroam name in those markets anyway). So uptake of the app should be quick in those areas, not to mention they are kicking off with android and windows too so growth rate could easily be comparable to NOR. It all depends on how they approach marketing. So far with the videos, websites, and streamed events like the launch I think it’s safe to say they are doing well…
The End...
Please highlight any incorrect info in this post. I would rather this be a discussion…
Didnt want to offend anyone with this...
I just wanted point people in the right direction after seeing all the comments about needing SIM cards for Flexiroam…
