T-Mobile (formerly Tinkoff Mobile)

Tinkoff Mobile is a virtual mobile operator that, together with Tinkoff Bank, is part of the Tinkoff Group of Companies. The operator launched in December 2017.

MVNO History

Main article: Development of Tinkoff Mobile virtual mobile operator (MVNO)

Performance indicators

2023

Subscriber base growth by 6 times in 3 years - up to 6 million users

The Russian virtual telecom operator T-Mobile has increased its subscriber base six times in three years. In April 2021, the number of subscribers amounted to just over 1 million people, and by the end of 2023 it reached 6 million. This growth was the result of the successful strategy and active development of the company. This was announced on June 6, 2024 by the general director of T-Mobile Vitaly Briedis.

According to him, in 2023 the company entered into a partnership with MTS, which made it possible to expand the geography of its presence and improve the quality of services. Now the operator works in 75 regions of Russia, and continues to expand the coverage area in order to reach the federal level.

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An important aspect of the company's development was the introduction of new technologies and process optimization. In 2022, T-Mobile changed international suppliers to more friendly and Russian ones, which avoided interruptions in the supply of equipment and services. The delivery of SIM cards, previously carried out through a French company, was redirected to an Asian partner, and roaming is now provided by new suppliers.

Briedis noted that in 2023 T-Mobile continued an active marketing campaign aimed at attracting new subscribers. T-Mobile has launched a large-scale advertising campaign, including TV advertising for the Protect or Refund service. The main driver of expenses was marketing, which also contributed to the growth of the subscriber base.

In addition, the CEO stressed that the company's financial performance confirms the success of the strategy. In 2023, T-Mobile's revenue amounted to 11 billion rubles, which is significantly higher than previous indicators. However, despite revenue growth, the company continues to incur a net loss associated with high marketing and infrastructure development costs.

T-Mobile is actively fighting phone fraud by offering its customers unique services such as Neuroscience, which breaks up a call if it detects fraudulent activity. Thanks to its close relationship with T-Bank, the company can effectively protect its subscribers from fraudsters, "Briedis added.[1]

Revenue growth by 97% to 11.21 billion rubles

Tinkoff Mobile completed 2023 with revenue of 11.21 billion rubles, which is 97% more than a year earlier, when the figure was measured at 5.69 billion rubles. At the same time, the virtual mobile operator in 2023 showed a net loss of 34.4 million rubles against net profit at 102.5 million rubles in 2022. Such data are provided in the service "Kontur. Focus," which TAdviser got acquainted with at the end of April 2024.

From these materials it follows that the cost of sales of Tinkoff Mobile in 2023 reached 6.24 billion rubles against 2.72 billion rubles at the end of the previous year. Gross profit increased from 2.97 billion to 4.97 billion rubles, profit from sales decreased from 354.3 million to 102.7 million rubles. The pre-tax loss in 2023 amounted to 35.7 million rubles against a profit of 137.4 million rubles a year earlier.

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The company's commercial expenses in 2023 increased to 3.9 billion rubles from 1.6 billion rubles a year earlier, and management costs decreased from 1 billion to 972.2 million rubles. Accounts payable Tinkoff Mobile by the end of December 2023 amounted to 3.02 billion rubles (in 2022 - 1.18 billion rubles), receivables - 582.8 million rubles (in 2022 - 613.5 million rubles).

Leading analyst at Mobile Research Group Eldar Murtazin linked a significant increase in Tinkoff Mobile revenue with an increase in the subscriber base. As for the losses, the expert commented on them as follows:

He and Sberbank do not have to be in the black: they primarily work on retention, and for them, customer loyalty to MVNO is an additional anchor that binds a person to the ecosystem. They don't want to make money here. The economy has changed, the prices have changed, so a small loss has appeared. As part of the costs of attracting and retaining customers for Tinkoff, this is insignificant money.

2021: The number of Tinkoff Mobile subscribers reached 1.1 million people

Tinkoff Mobile first revealed the number of subscribers - by April 2021 there were 1.1 million people. We are talking about clients who use the connection of a virtual mobile operator at least once in three months.

The presentation of the Tinkoff group for Investor Day describes the average Tinkoff Mobile subscriber - a person aged 38 years old, earning about 65 thousand rubles a month.

The representative of Tele2 (Tinkoff Mobile operates on the networks of this operator) explained to VTimes that Tinkoff shows the fastest pace of recruiting a subscriber base in the banking segment of operators. The company was one of the first to enter this market, quickly began active regional expansion, and also had a debugged sales and logistics system, he said.

The number of Tinkoff Mobile subscribers by April 2021 reached 1.1 million people

In total, about 20 MVNOs operate on the basis of Tele2, their total subscriber base grew by 28% in 2020 to 4.8 million people, Tele2 disclosed. The operator does not disclose the share of individual MVNOs, since the company and its partners can use different subscriber accounting policies, the representative of Tele2 draws attention. However, he admits that banking MVNOs are growing the fastest: at the end of 2020, revenues from their work increased by 73% year-on-year, and the subscriber base showed a record growth of 32% for the stagnating market.

In the Tinkoff group, their MVNO project is called the largest on the Russian market in terms of the use of ports for incoming connections. According to the group's estimates, the share of Tinkoff Mobile in this indicator is 6.1%.

It also follows from the company's materials that the cost of attracting a client (Customer acquisition cost, CAC - an indicator characterizing the ratio of funds spent to the number of attracted customers) at Tinkoff Mobile is $8.^[2][3]

2020: Losses - 984 million rubles

Losses of Tinkoff Mobile in 2020 amounted to 984 million rubles. The revenue of the virtual mobile operator during this time almost doubled and reached 2.22 billion rubles.

2019: Growth of losses to 966.5 million rubles, revenue - to 1.14 billion rubles

In 2019 , Tinkoff Mobile earned 1.14 billion rubles in revenue, which is almost five times higher than a year ago. Net losses of the virtual mobile operator from the "" group Tinkoff increased from 716.75 to 966.5 million rubles, and losses from the sale rose by 22.52% on an annualized basis and exceeded 1 billion rubles at the end of 2019. Such data are contained in the analytical system "" SPARK-Interfax(they are cited by Sheets"").^[4]

Tinkoff Mobile's loss for the year reached almost 1 billion rubles

The Tinkoff MVNO project, as well as 20 other virtual operators, has been launched on Tele2 networks. The total number of subscribers from such operators cooperating with Tele2 reached 3.75 million by the end of 2019, having more than doubled compared to the previous year. The Tinkoff Mobile audience has not been made public. Tele2 only says that Tinkoff Mobile,[[|SberMobile and VTB Mobile account for half of the subscribers of virtual operators operating on Tele2 networks.

According to Konstantin Ankilov, General Director of TMT Consulting, Tinkoff Mobile is actively promoting services among its own banking clients. He has about 10 million of them, while the Tinkoff Mobile mobile application has over 1 million downloads, the expert points Mobile. At the beginning of 2020, Kommersant, citing a source in the telecom, wrote that Tinkoff Mobile has more than 1 million subscribers.

In 2019, Tinkoff Mobile's share in the Russian MVNO services market amounted to 9%, which is the third indicator after Yota and Rostelecom (data from TMT Consulting).

Tinkoff Mobile initially entered the market more aggressively than other players, reminded the head of Content Review Sergey Polovnikov.

The operator is favorably distinguished by its own roaming policy and a more convenient connection mechanics, in which there is no need to visit a bank branch, the expert notes.

2018: Revenue - 239 million rubles, losses - 1.1 billion rubles

Tinkoff Mobile's revenue in 2018 amounted to 239 million rubles. Tinkoff Mobile's losses turned out to be equal to 1.1 billion rubles, of which 254 million rubles fell on the costs of attracting customers and 814 million rubles on administrative and operating costs.

Notes