By Dusan Belic on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 3:07 AM PST
In Barcelona 2009 Summer
Here’s the recap from the three events I attended during the last two weeks, in case you missed something:
HiT Barcelona - World Innovation Summit
Mobile 2.0 Europe
Mobile Money Summit
By Dusan Belic on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 2:32 AM PST
In Barcelona 2009 Summer, Partnerships, Services
One more release from the Mobile Money Summit event in Barcelona…
Leader in global roaming and interoperability solutions, California-based Roamware, announced a strategic partnership with Grameen Solutions to develop mobile money applications and services for the unbanked.
So, on one side we have Grameen Solutions which is part of Grameen group that also includes Grameen Bank, the world’s leading micro-finance institution; and on the other, Roamware which ecosystem spans over 375 network operators in 138 countries, reaching more than 1.8 billion mobile users. You see where this goes, right?
The two companies could reach the poor and allow them to use financial services through their mobile phones and that’s a noble cause. Hopefully, we’ll hear some tangible results from either Roamware or Grameen in the near future…
By Dusan Belic on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 9:46 AM PST
In Barcelona 2009 Summer
And I’m officially done with the Mobile Money Summit. Tomorrow I’m back at my regular writing to cover other, non mobile payment topics.
Again I left early to prepare all the posts for publishing, and have missed three more presentations:
- Creating Sophistication in Mobile Money - Roberto Rittes, Director of Oi Paggo
- Panel: Addressing the Challenges and Realising the Potential of Mobile Banking in Developed Markets
- Future Strategies, Commitments and Projections for Mobile Money - Siki Mgabadeli, Financial journalist and business news anchor
Of course, if I catch some mobile money-related press release these days, I’ll make sure to post it as well.
Overall, I liked the conference. I learned a lot and have grabbed a piece of the enthusiasm companies and governments have for mobile financial services. Despite recession, I felt that mobile payment, mobile banking and related services will have its share in bringing the brighter future to both developing and developed countries…
By Dusan Belic on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 9:43 AM PST
In Barcelona 2009 Summer
Yesterday I posted an interview with Carol Realini from Obopay. Now she’s on stage discussing mobile payments industry players and how they are in a unique position to benefit from a global approach to industry developments. She talked about financial services, wireless and service providers and how they all need to work together to build a sustainable ecosystem that will propel the industry at a global level.
The recap from her speech:
- First she introducing Obopay, mentioning their deal with MasterCard, and investment from Nokia (NYSE: NOK).
- According to Carol, the success will require three things: a holistic approach, strategic partners, and new payment flows.
- Obopay wants to serve all market segments - unbanked, under-banked and banked users in all markets. She mentioned an U.S. example where according to some research there are 30 million families that are considered ubanked or under-banked — i.e. underserved and over-charged.
- Obopay’s philosophy is “Value is in the network.”
- Then she discussed how different user groups require different services: banked want flexible access, under-banked need full access, and un-banked pre-paid money services.
- Because they want to work with all kinds of users, Obopay’s platform is designed to work in various regulatory environments: highly regulated (restricted) such as India, regulated such as U.S. and the EU, as well as innovative markets like Kenya, where telcos are allowed to perform some business banks usually do.
- In that sense, Obopay works with different stakeholders - carriers, banks, merchants, associations, and consumers to reach its goal of offering a cross-carrier and cross-bank service.
- However, when they enter a new market they pick a key/anchor bank and carrier. In the U.S. that was Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless and Citibank. Now they’re also co-operating with AT&T (NYSE: T).
- Finally, she mentioned Obopay’s plans to support all mobile platforms and even extend to social networks.
And that’s all I caught from Carol this time. I’ll be leaving Fira shortly…
By Dusan Belic on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 9:40 AM PST
In Barcelona 2009 Summer
Next on the list was Len Pienaar, CEO of Mobile and Transact Solutions. He presented the situation in South Africa and the adoption of mobile banking services in the country.
Here’s what we’ve learned from his presentation:
- Mobile banking in South Africa has taken off and keeps growing like crazy.
- Customers could top-up airtime, pay utilities, data and SMS bundles.
- They also ventured in the payment space. On the slide, we’ve seen a number of online retailers that are using the platform.
- Moreover, they also tried cross selling financial products with mixed success. Opening of savings accounts and micro loans proved successful, while transactional products were not.
- They managed to replicate the model in 5 other countries in Africa.
- Demographics wise, mobile banking is mostly used by younger users, aged between 19 and 40 years.
- Len concluded with some research data, saying that people trust the service, but have concerns on WAP login-related issues, availability and reliability of the service.
That’s it from Len. Next comes Carol from Obopay…
[Image from Flickr]
By Dusan Belic on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 9:34 AM PST
In Barcelona 2009 Summer
At the Mobile Money Summit, Africa’s mobile group, Zain, announced a partnership with Western Union. Under the terms of the agreement, Zain will link its Zap m-payment platform with Western Union’s global agent network, allowing Zap users to access WE’s 334,000 agent locations across 200 countries around the world. As a result, Zain hopes to attract immigrant workers in Western Europe, US, and Australia, who could utilize the service to send money to their friends and relatives in countries Zain serves.
Speaking of Zap, it’s Zain’s mobile payments platform which enables users to transfer money from one Zap account to the other, top-up airtime, and pay their bills. It works in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and the carrier plans to bring the service to other markets it serves, as soon as it gets necessary regulatory approvals.
Finally, Zain also noted that the deal formed part of its One Network initiative, which aims to create a “borderless” mobile network covering all of its markets…
By Dusan Belic on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 9:32 AM PST
In Barcelona 2009 Summer
GSMA used the Mobile Money Summit to launch its new Mobile Money Exchange initiative, aiming to engage with new stakeholders and sectors that are entering the mobile ecosystem. Visa and Globe Telecom are the first two founding partners of the project.
From the press release:
Through this initiative, the GSMA is helping financial services companies who are entering the mobile environment, by providing a common voice and formal business forum for business collaboration. The ethos behind the formation of the Exchange is for best practise and innovations to be highlighted and shared, both across industry and inter-industry. The Mobile Money Exchange will feature an online knowledge portal with social business networking and community functionality designed to advise and serve the interests of the mobile money industry.
The Mobile Money Exchange will facilitate new partnerships and business models, drive thought leadership, champion innovation and knowledge transfer through engaging all elements of the mobile money industry.
Commenting on the announcement, GSMA’a Bill Gajda said: “Mobile Money Exchange builds on the Mobile Money Programme that the GSMA launched in 2006 and which has been a tremendous success in terms of building a global community. Through the Mobile Money Exchange, fundamental principles and requirements which are not currently being met, such as fragmentation and therefore lack of ability to scale, will be addressed and the Exchange will advance, advise and serve the interests of the mobile money market.”
By Dusan Belic on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 9:27 AM PST
In Barcelona 2009 Summer
During the Mobile Money Summit, the GSMA announced that the first three applications to the Mobile Money for the Unbanked Fund have been approved to compete for the MMU Award.
The first MMU Award category will be part of the Asia Mobile Awards to be presented in Hong Kong at the Mobile Asia Congress on November 18th. The award will recognise the mobile money service or application that has had the most significant impact on unbanked customers in developing markets over the last year. The Asia Mobile Awards will open for entry in early July and close on September 15th. This new MMU category will also be included in the GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards.
Eligibility criteria for the MMU Fund:
- The project must involve providing mobile money services to unbanked customers living on under $2 per day;
- The mobile money service proposed must be innovative, market based and its development likely to be accelerated with the support of the MMU Fund;
- Applicants must explain why the project cannot readily obtain commercial finance or other sources of finance;
- Funding must be utilised within the project timeframe of 2 years.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided $12.5 million to GSMA for the project…
By Dusan Belic on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 9:23 AM PST
In Barcelona 2009 Summer
After the launch we’ve heard Eric Duprat, who is General Manager of Mobile at PayPal, and who addressed some key questions such as:
- What are challenges that providers in developed markets have?
- What is holding back adoption?
- Where will the market be in 12-18 months?
First he introduced PayPal, sharing some very interesting numbers:
- 148 million accounts of which 70+ million are active
- $60 billion volume in 2008 (45% international)
- PayPal holds 10% of global online commerce
- 190 markets and 19 currencies
- Co-operating with 15,000+ banks
- 6000+ employees worldwide
Read the full article »
By Dusan Belic on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 9:17 AM PST
In Barcelona 2009 Summer
Celcom Malaysia’s VP of Business Innovation division, Kevin Henry, talk about the operator’s recently launched Celcom AirCash service, which allows users to transfer money from one AirCash account to the other. Moreover, they [users] can top-up airtime with AirCash (for pre-paid users), as well as check their current account balance at any time.
The service currently works in Malaysia and Indonesia, but Celcom plans to launch the service to the Philippines in the near future.
Any mobile phone will work — a high-end smartphone is not required — and it’s easy to register, and later on use the service. SIM card is used to identify any single user, allowing customers to freely change their phones.
At the end, it’s worth pointing out that Kevin emphasized the high-level of security, saying that their AirCash service is “as secure as your ATM card.”
Next came launch…
