Tune Talk Shop Is The Telco’s New In-App E-Commerce Platform Serving Local Markets

Local telco operator Tune Talk has something new, if not slightly bizarre: an in-app e-commerce platform called Tune Talk Shop, which competes with the likes of Shopee and TikTok Shop on paper. The shop is developed in collaboration with Presto, and users can do all of the e-commerce things like browsing, making purchase, and receive the products, all within the confines of Tune Talk app.

Tune Talk Shop

Perhaps the question lingering in everyone’s head right now is, do we really need a shop inside a telco app? To that end, Tune Talk says it is “deliberately moving away” from the business model where telco operators primarily compete on data pricing and volume. The company notes that Tune Talk Shop is a “native layer within the Tune Talk app”, involving the company’s own “proprietary value system.”

The unique selling point here mainly involves loyalty points, where users can purchase more than 20,000 curated products with Tune Talk Points applied for exclusive discounts, on top of the usual payment options (like Touch ‘n Go eWallet). Tune Talk notes that it will manage the “end-to-end experience and payment environment,” while Presto will handle the backend infrastructure, including product catalog and delivery operations.

The telco operator pointed out user engagement metrics for its reasoning behind the launch of namesake shop, although we do wonder why companies are apparently competing for your eyeballs when a telco app is, for the most part, a tool. Last year, it introduced in-app gaming and drama streaming services which amassed daily usage time of 36 minutes, or 400% higher than “global telco app benchmarks.” If you ask me, all of these sounds like comparing which smartphone’s Settings app has the most usage time.

Pokdepinion: Why is app usage time suddenly an important metric? Shouldn’t a tool be just… a tool? Like, avoid getting in the way as much as possible?