EVOKE INTERNATIONAL: THE IMPORTANCE OF GOVERNANCE

Established 13 years ago, Evoke International has come a long way, building digital platforms and mobile apps for leading telecommunication operators. The company has an in-house development team that is driving innovative product expansion for local and global audiences. Boyhood friends, Lahiru Wickramasinghe (Founding CEO/ Director) and Rajiv Gunawardena (Director), discuss the importance of governance in their continuous search for innovative products and going international.

Can you tell us how the company has evolved since its founding?

Evoke was founded in 2008 as a basic-level content aggregator in a nascent market with two other players. Back then, mobile networks sold songs as caller ring back tones, a service that is popular even today. One company had monopolised the market distributing local music to the telecom operators, but the songwriters and singers did not get anything out of this.

We decided to launch Evoke with a different business model. We acquired digital rights and shared the revenue with the songwriters and musicians. Within a year of launching Evoke, we had commanded more than half the caller ring back tone market share. Evoke developed Sri Lanka’s first OTT platform with the development of a movie platform called Film Hall. Our software engineers also developed Movie Box, one of the most downloaded apps in the country. For Evoke, evolution is a constant. We mainly deal with mobile telecommunication operators. So technically, we are on-board with five operators in both fixed and mobile. But when you look at the B2C market at any given time, we have about 2.5 to 3 million people directly or indirectly accessing our services.

We have products ranging from SMS services to mobile apps. For voice-related and SMS related products, we have our platforms deployed at operator level. When you look at SLT Mobitel fixed line, we have our caller ring back tone platform. When you dial a landline these days, you will hear a Covid-19 safety massage. That message plays from our platform. Dialog Axiata’s voice messages about bill settlement or song downloads, that’s also us. We do SMS gateway message services where you get promotions from banks and other companies. We are now offering these services directly to our clients. Suppose a company wants to send their messages directly to their clients, we can provide that service to them.

When we talk about applications, we have launched a product called My Buddies, a Sri Lankan celebrity app where you can follow and interact with your favourite stars. Then we have EvoPlay which is a local movie, teledrama and entertainment platform. We have partnered with Hungama, a digital entertainment company based in India, for the latest content from Bollywood to Hollywood with English, Hindi, Tamil movies and music for the Sri Lankan market.

We also have a recording label called Evoke Music, which produces and distributes Sri Lankan music in audio and video formats. We aim to transform the local music industry so that songwriters, singers, and musicians can build successful careers, monetize their talent and lead comfortable lives.

We had the first-mover advantage and invested in technology and superior content to stay ahead of the competition. We invested in building in-house development capabilities and did not rely on third-party developers and tech platforms. Governance is another area that occupied us considerably.

Governance is the foundation of any successful business. Without sound governance, sustainable growth, process efficiencies, and profitability will be harder to achieve because you need to establish integrity and trust across diverse stakeholders from consumers to employees, investors, suppliers, and regulators. Good governance for a business is what a solid foundation is to a house.

How is governance helping Evoke secure growth opportunities and set itself apart from the competition?

Very early in Evoke’s journey, we decided to appoint independent directors to the board with relevant expertise and professional skills to drive this company forward. Evoke was a startup founded by close friends. However, the decision to appoint independent directors made all the difference as the company grew because we had the necessary checks and balances.

It was the first concrete step in imbuing sound governance into the business and helping us secure sustainable growth opportunities because we established a robust audit and quality assurance culture. We also put a team in place to look at regulatory requirements. Now we have the launching pad to propel Evoke towards the next phase of growth and ahead of the competition as we continue to lead in front in the value-added services industry.

Very early in Evoke’s journey, we decided to appoint independent directors to the board with relevant expertise and professional skills to drive this company forward

What is your vision for the company and the exciting next steps for Evoke?

We aim to dominate the Sri Lankan industry in terms of value-added services. Later this year, we will venture outside our shores to target the Sri Lankan diaspora and expatriate community in other countries. We recently launched ‘EvoPlay’, which is also available in international markets, and activations and subscriptions are coming in mainly from Australia, Italy, and the Middle East.

We will partner with another Indian based technological company called Tesync Technology Limited, specialists in digital entertainment for the subcontinent market. We will collaborate with TASE to upscale Evoke to the next level of digital entertainment and eventually evolve into a leading technological service provider in Sri Lanka. Right now, we have a 15% share of the digital entertainment market and will double this to 30% within next two years.

We intend to list Evoke on the Colombo Stock Exchange to fund our global expansion and allow investors to discover value and share in our growth and success. Under the first phase, we will expand operations to Bangladesh and West Asia, tweaking our products for audiences in those markets.

The long term goal is to connect with consumers directly enabling us to offer many more services at lower rates so that end-consumers benefit. We hope this will improve the digital technology uptake in rural areas, contributing in no small way to the transformation of the economy.

What is the culture you are trying to build at Evoke?

We want to have a very open culture that encourages and enables people to be creative and innovative with equal opportunities for all, irrespective of age, gender, race, religion, or social standing. Evoke is a friendly and welcoming place, but it is also purposeful and target-driven. As leaders, each moment at the office is dedicated to our people because creating a great working environment is an important KPI. Employee satisfaction is a top priority in line with the overall goals and objectives of the company.