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Singapore

SINGAPORE-BASED martial arts organisation One Championship has launched its new mobile app, and the company's chief financial officer reckons that the number of downloads will run into the millions in the first few weeks alone.

The app, called the "One Super App", went 'live' last Friday, the same day that One Championship inked a deal with communications giant Singtel Group to deliver martial arts-related content and other digital assets to people across Asia.

They will explore integrating Singtel's mobile wallets and carrier billing services to power e-commerce functions in the new app, which will also offer 'live' and recorded telecasts of martial arts matches and events. Both sides will also consider jointly producing original content.

Speaking to The Business Times ahead of the app's launch, One Championship's CFO Teh Hua Fung said it was difficult to estimate how many people would download the app in the initial phase, but was certain it would easily be in the millions.

"The NBA (National Basketball Association) in the US has nine million subscribers on YouTube, and I feel it won't be difficult to get that kind of number in the early days of the launch," he said.

"We are in this huge market in Asia where there are four billion people, and we have a tremendous reach. Our social media presence is growing by the day, and we can be successful because martial arts transcends the entire region," Mr Teh added.

He said the content on the mobile app would be available for free, with fans able to access every One Championship event and the company's complete library of digital content. The content will stream in full high-definition.

"We will give users the chance to follow their favourite athlete and get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look into their stories and lives. As far as Singtel is concerned, we want to help them better engage their millions of subscribers across the region," said Mr Teh.

Arthur Lang, the chief executive officer (International Group) at Singtel, said the company will be exploring ways to develop and deliver exclusive martial arts content to its customers in Singapore and Australia, as well as its regional associates in Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and India.

"Sports content is a big winner with our consumers, with millennials comprising a large part of our customer base," he said.

Separately, Mr Teh also revealed that One Championship is in talks with the Singapore Exchange on a local corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnership.

While he could not delve into specific details as yet, he would only say that CSR is "very important" to One Championship, and that the company is involved in many ways to give back to society.

"Our founder (and CEO Chatri Sityodtong) went through extreme poverty and clawed his way up. Many of our athletes have very challenging backgrounds but they have overcome these obstacles to be the heroes and champions they are today. In that sense, CSR is something that hits very dearly at the DNA of the company," said Mr Teh.

One Championship's next major 'live' event in Singapore is on May 18 at the Indoor Stadium in Kallang, which has a main event featuring women's atomweight world champion Angela Lee defending her belt against Japan's Mei Yamaguchi.

This bout is a rematch of their epic meeting in Singapore two years ago, a five-round battle that many hailed as one of the best in women's mixed martial arts history.