Capital A, the holding firm of Malaysia-based budget airline AirAsia, has launched mobile gifting offering aptly named ‘airasia gifts’, in partnership with COOP Marketing Group, a South Korean mobile voucher industry player who has also been establishing strong footprints in the ASEAN region.

Capital A said in a statement that it has unveiled its vision of a more community led experience on airasia super app, introducing features such as airasia chat, games and the newly launched airasia gifts – allowing the community of airasia members to connect, play and share.  

Capital A Chief Executive Officer Tony Fernandes said that it has been his vision to set up its own airasia community and engagement platform, especially a messenger service like airasia chat, even when the firm was just an airline.

“Now that we have evolved into a travel super app, it makes even more sense for us to push this through and introduce this to the world,” it said.

According to him, the firm has a database of 51 million travellers who are seeking for content, information, and entertainment – which are integral to the pre, actual and post-travel experience.

“Essentially, this community pillar, or what we would like to call airasia Republic, is the future of airasia super app and integral to the airlines, which will also include features to enhance customer engagement and experience,” he said.

He also said that the feature is a space where airasia brings the whole of Asean closer together, enabling the community to share information, engage and build meaningful connections, share creativity and learn from each other – thus creating a strong sense of community.

“Aside from everything I’ve mentioned, we will continue to enhance our ecosystem, creating a more self-sustaining engagement based user experience – making airasia Community truly an airasia way of life,” he added.

According to the statement, airasia super app users can now set up their own social profile in the community via the Profile section.

The social profile is the heart of the community experience whereby users can engage in 1-to-1 chat, interact with other community members with similar passions and personalise the content they receive.

Their social profile will enable them to interact with other travellers as well as those in their contact list via airasia chat as a messenger service.

They can also engage with over 20 active communities ranging from foodies, travellers to adventure seekers and follow channels to get the latest news and promotions from the whole airasia ecosystem. 

Meanwhile, accessible only via airasia chat (a hub of the community), users are able to experience cross-border mobile gifting and select from gift categories which include: airasia products – flights, hotels, food; beauty, health and wellness (Watsons, BMS, Thai Paradise, Ogawa); entertainment (PlayStation Network, Razer); fashion (Zalora, Adidas, FootLocker); food and beverages (Starbucks, FamilyMart, Secret Recipe, Dominos); over 300 brands of mobile gift vouchers to choose from.

Capital A Commercial President Colin Currie said the global mobile gifting or e-gifting industry is valued at $258 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $1.1 trillion by year 2030.

According to him, the airasia super app has set up the right infrastructure such as airasia chat, which can facilitate mobile gifting easily, especially cross-border gifting, which no other travel super app is able to offer.

“We are happy to work with COOP Marketing to make it happen. And as we are in the season of giving, this is the right time for us to launch this in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia today,

“The vision is to drive engagement and app stickiness on our platform, and in the future develop this into our own advertising platform,” he added.

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