Disqus
If I died yesterday I wouldn’t know about Lebara. They don’t have to do much with mobile payments — at least not at the moment — but they have an interesting business model. Those not familiar should know that Lebara is one of the most successful MVNOs in the world. This privately owned company prides itself with constant growth, and their trick is in targeting the specific market – immigrant workers in Western Europe and Australia (and that’s also the reason why I haven’t heard of them).
They provide their customers with low-cost international phone calls, and are relying on existing infrastructure which they lease from the likes of Vodafone, KPN, Orange, and others. Then, when an international call is initiated, Lebara routes it through Internet, ensuring ridiculously cheap calls for their customers.
And since Lebara’s users are immigrant workers, they don’t utilize national media for advertising. Rather it’s local media outlets, sponsorship of concerts and other, I could say, guerrilla techniques to reach the desired audience. This sounds like a super cost effective way, and in that sense I applaud them for wisely spending their marketing budget.
Fraaz seems like a nice guy, and I can see why he’s at the Mobile Money Summit. Immigrant workers send a portion of their earnings back to their homeland. Lebara sees this as an opportunity and hopes to bundle/mix a payment service with their mobile service offering to expand beyond selling minutes and SMS, and effectively increase its ARPU. Very interesting approach, gotta admit!
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
