Tigo evaluates Bolivia's e-commerce market for potential service launch

Bolivian telecoms operator Tigo expects to launch e-commerce operations in the future, local paper La Razón reported CEO Pablo Guardia as saying.

"This is a business which is growing in other countries and we think we should bring it to Bolivia," the executive said.

According to Guardia, large, medium-sized and small companies are demanding e-commerce solutions in Bolivia." "We are currently carrying out a complete study of the market in order to define a proposal," he said.

Guardia also highlighted the solid performance of Tigo Money, the firm's m-payment service. By end-2013, there were 715 Tigo Money sites across the country, mainly in rural areas, the executive said.

Through Tigo's m-payment service, mobile subscribers can top up phone credit, make transfers from mobile to mobile and make payments, among other services.

Tigo, owned by Luxembourg-based mobile operator Millicom (Nasdaq: MICC), had 3.14mn mobile telephony subscribers in Bolivia at the end of the fourth quarter of last year, holding the second largest market share at 34.9%.

Tigo's subscribers in Bolivia represented 22.8% of Millicom's total mobile subscribers in Latin America in December.

Tigo's mobile concession was awarded in 1995 and expires in 2015.

As well as mobile services, the telco provides broadband and pay TV services in Bolivia.