Smart, Globe launch ‘free’ promos to win market share

The country’s two telecommunications players on Wednesday launched a new set of “free” offers for popular social media applications in a bid to increase their market share, as consumer preferences change.

In a statement, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.’s Smart Communications launched a promo for free Instagram, a photo-sharing application owned by social media giant Facebook, for pre-paid and post-paid plans.

Globe Telecom, separately, allowed its subscribers more free options when using Facebook.

In its statement, Smart said prepaid subscribers would be able to use free Instagram browsing and posting for up to 30 megabytes via its promos, including its All Text 20, Unli Call & Text 30, All in 99 and Mega 250 offers.

Meanwhile, users who subscribe to any of Smart’s Surf Plus Plans will get access to the Free Instagram offer as part of their freebie app bundle for 30 days.

Globe on Tuesday launched what it described as a “complete suite of access” to Facebook without data charges.

Specifically, Globe’s offer involves  Facebook with free data with a new in-app feature allowing subscribes to choose the type of Facebook access, Free Facebook for 7 Days for TM customers, and Free Facebook with a GoSURF subscription.

It noted that Facebook with free data is a so-called zero-rated, lightweight version of Facebook with limited access to photos and videos.

The offer was aimed at “people who are conscious of spending their mobile data. Facebook with free data will give customers more control over their data usage.”

Both Instagram and Facebook are popular in the Philippines.

Smart noted that Instagram ranked among the top five most used apps by Philippine mobile users, citing data from the latest Ericsson Mobility Report.

Globe, for its part,  said Facebook data showed about 43 million active Filipino users of Facebook as of March 2015—a figure 23 percent more than the same period in 2014.