History
Mobafone was first established in 2001 in Germany by Thorsten Knaebel. After a fast tracked corporate career spanning management roles in Canada and South East Asia he returned to Europe in 2000 to pursue a new career path as an online entrepreneur.
Thorsten's previous successful start up businesses prior to Mobafone included one focussed on interactive web applications and another in the online retail space.
He subsequently shifted direction with his vision that wireless hand held mobile devices would be the future for dissemination of information rather than a bulky PC (or as it was then, a heavy laptop). Mobility, immediacy, the ability to personalise and the capacity for 360 degree feedback would create opportunities to better define markets and develop valuable consumer relationships was his thinking.
In 2002 the first step in this vision was developing and distributing mobile phone content and applications to consumer markets in Germany. As one of the early leaders in this nascent industry, Mobafone quickly grew farther north and east to Denmark, Austria and Switzerland.
In 2004 the strategic decision was made to expand and shift focus to the high growth markets of South East Asia.
This was to take advantage of number of perceived advantages:
- Greater subscriber growth rate than in established markets.
- In emerging markets mobile phone growth dwarfs internet subscription rates and delivers the opportunity to leverage where less people have access to a computer.
- A young and growing demographic for online activities.
- Realisation that each national market is different and needs a presence to have a competitive advantage.
In 2004 began operating in Thailand and in early 2005 began operations in Indonesia.
Currently we have development and sales centres spread over 3 sites in Flensburg Germany, Bangkok and Jakarta. Germany remains the centre of technical excellence and distribution point for content to the European market, particularly concentrated upon Germany and Denmark. Bangkok and Jakarta serve both the local and regional markets with local market solutions and act as development centers for solutions that can be distributed globally. These sites are managed by a mix of experienced expatriate and local staff.