Online music subscription service Deezer is rolling out across Asia this week, the French company announced today. It will first become available in Thailand, rapidly followed by Singapore and Malaysia, ahead of its upcoming launch in Indonesia and the Philippines within the coming weeks.
It is worth noting that Deezer is partnering with mobile carrier dtac on its Thailand launch, on the same model it used with Orange, T-Mobile and Belgacom in other markets. In practical terms, Thai customers of the operator will be able to access the service as part of an integrated dtac postpaid tariff.
According to its CEO Axel Dauchez, these deals are highly valuable for Deezer and its users. “We are pleased to have dtac on board as we have found in other markets that telecommunications partnerships provide a powerful way of helping people explore this revolutionary new way of listening to, discovering and sharing music,” he explained.
Yet, Deezer’s Premium+ service will also be available as a standalone offer – not only in Thailand, but also in Singapore and Malaysia once it enters these territories in a few days. According to the company, mobile data use resulting from the Deezer application will be free of charge in all three countries.
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The Asian countries the company selected are an interesting market for a multi-platform music service such as Deezer, thanks to a series of factors such as high smartphone adoption and broadband penetration.
Once it completes the first phase of its Asian rollout, Deezer will be operating in 91 countries, following a series of announcements; as we reported, it recently ventured into Africa and Latin America. Overall, Deezer currently boasts 1.5m subscribers around the world, not to mention its 800,000 Facebook fans following the launch of its integration with the social network in September 2011.
Although this figure is impressive, it seems that Deezer hasn’t reached its international goals yet. Last December during LeWeb, the company had unveiled its ambition to be available in 200 countries by mid-2012.
While Indonesia and the Philippines are next on the list, it will also be interesting to see whether and when Deezer will venture into India, where it would face competitors such as Dhingana, Saavn and Spuul.
Image credit: Le ciel azuré
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