m.Net makes the top 5 of Deloitte’s Fast 50
Posted by Horden Wiltshire, Chief Executive Officer
m.Net was pleased to be ranked number 5 in the Deloitte Australian Fast 50 awards announced last week and we were particularly pleased to be ranked number 1 in South Australia. To anyone thinking of joining m.Net: all I can say is we don’t expect things to slow down any time soon!
One of the interesting things to note from the awards was that of the ten fastest-growing companies in Australia three were mobile companies. The Rising Star award was also won by another mobile player (Amethon Solutions) providing further evidence of the opportunities in the mobile space.
So have we peaked and will we see the number of mobile players experiencing higher rates of growth plateau, or does the mobile industry still have a long way to run? Of course the reason we are in this business is because we think the latter but there is plenty of evidence to support this view.
If you have been following this blog you will be familiar with the concept of the off-deck tipping point. Scott, Marisa, and I have talked about the factors that impact on the ubiquitous uptake of mobile services that are outside the carrier portals. With data prices coming down, carrier portals opening up, and almost 50% of consumers now with a 3G phone in Australia the only factor remaining is user behaviour. All the signs are positive that customers are becoming more familiar with off deck services but it is still early days and we see plenty of growth over the next 3-5 years. Outside of North Asia, Australia has one of the higher adoption rates of 3G services because of the early launch of the services by “3″ in 2003 and the aggressive rollout of 3G by the country’s largest carrier, Telstra.
In my view Australia will reach the off-deck tipping point before many other countries in the world, which means we still have a few years until the global tipping point is reached. As we look to opportunities in global markets for new services we hope that there will many years in the Deloitte Fast 50 ahead!