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  • 8/8/2019 M-PesaTransforming Millions of Lives

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    M-Pesa: Transforming Millions of Lives I

    Posted by Mohit Agrawal on 1/19/10 Categorized asTelecom

    The economic impact of mobile phones is a well talkedabout fact but the role of mobile phones in remittances and money circulation can befar greater. Despite the great potential, there are very few examples of successfulmobile money transfer due to regulatory hurdles and evolving business models. By farthe most successful example of mobile money is M-Pesa. M-Pesa is a joint venture

    between Vodafone and Safaricom (the local mobile operator ) with the backing ofCitibank and Commercial Bank of Africa. This two part case study would attempt toexplain the reasons behind M-Pesas success (part I) and how it is transforming thelives of Kenyans (part II).

    The name M-Pesa is derived from the Swahili word pesa, meaning cash. M-PESA

    allows users to make four basic types of transaction:

    transfers from person to person transfers from individuals to businesses cash withdrawals at designated outlets loan receipt or repayment

    How does the service work?

    The M-Pesa service platform, developed in-house by Vodafone and the consultingcompany Sagentia, integrates a mobile wallet with Safaricoms rating, billing and

    provisioning systems.

    http://www.telecomcircle.com/author/mohitagrawal/http://www.telecomcircle.com/category/telecom/http://www.telecomcircle.com/category/telecom/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/01/impact-of-mobility-on-economic-growth-in-developing-countries/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/benefits-of-mobile-money-transfer/http://telecomcircle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/M-Pesa-Ad.jpghttp://www.telecomcircle.com/author/mohitagrawal/http://www.telecomcircle.com/category/telecom/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/01/impact-of-mobility-on-economic-growth-in-developing-countries/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/benefits-of-mobile-money-transfer/
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    Subscribers of Safaricom can register for the M-Pesa service by filling up a simpleform and providing any identification proof. Once registered, Safaricom replaces theirSIM with the M-Pesa enabled SIM (if required, all new mobile subscribers now getthe M-Pesa enabled SIM). To load the money on the the wallet, the user needs to visitthe nearest agent and deposit cash there in exchange for e-Float. This e-Float is likecurrency that can be used to make payments or transfer to any other person. The e-Float is can be transferred to any person or merchant via encrypted SMS. The receiverof the virtual currency can either use it for further transactions or can cash-out from

    M-Pesa designated outlets. The figure along side depicts the M-Pesa transaction flow.

    How has the service performed so far?

    Safaricom has regularly been releasing the financials of M-Pesaservice which havebeen impressive by any standard:

    1. As on November, 2009, M-Pesa had 8.6 million users which is ~25% ofKenyas population

    2. Close to 15K agents (more than doubled in last one year). Kenya has 1500ATMs and 840 bank branches which pale in comparison

    3. Monthly person to person transactions worth over $320 million with averageof $37 per user per month

    http://www.safaricom.co.ke/fileadmin/template/main/images/MiscUploads/M-PESA%20Statistics.pdfhttp://www.safaricom.co.ke/fileadmin/template/main/images/MiscUploads/M-PESA%20Statistics.pdfhttp://telecomcircle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/M-Pesa-Process.jpghttp://www.safaricom.co.ke/fileadmin/template/main/images/MiscUploads/M-PESA%20Statistics.pdf
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    The service is not only scoring high on financials but also on the consumerconfidence. Kenyas independent Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSD), whichaims to support the development of inclusive financial markets in Kenya, carried out asurvey of M-PESA use in 2008. The survey of 3,000 randomly selected householdsacross Kenya, 300 randomly selected M-PESA agents and 50 M-PESA head offices

    found almost 40% of households use M-PESA, with 63% sending regular financialsupport. Of those surveyed:

    90% believe their money is safe with M-PESA 81% find M-PESA very easy to use and a further 15% say it is quite easy to

    use 84% say losing M-PESA would have a large negative effect.

    Factors behind M-Pesas succes

    Large Market Share -- Market share of Safaricom in Kenya was in excess of

    80% at the time of launch of the service. This large base could ring in thenetwork effect which is reflected in the high consumer adoption.

    Trust - Safaricom selected the agents with a lot of care to ensure agents withhigh integrity are there on its network. Since the service involves money, it isimportant gain user trust. Safaricom communicated a lot with the users; if theserver is slow, it would communicate that to the users so that there is noanxiety amongst the users. The survey conducted by FSD confirms the faithreposed by users in the M-Pesa service.

    Relationship with the Regulator and other Banks -- Safaricom never hadany confrontation with the regulators. It involved the central bank right fromthe very beginning. It always tries to accommodate concerns of the regulatorand the banking industry. The Kenyan Government had voiced concerns overthe possibility of criminals using the service to launder money, and on May4th 2009 had ordered the Central Bank to audit Safaricoms M-Pesa service.Safaricom welcomed the Governments decision and passed the audit due tocomplete transparent operations and proactive sharing of data with theregulator. The Central Bank declared the service safe and in line withGovernments objectives of financial inclusion

    Quick response to consumer needs- Safaricom quickly changed its focusfrom repayment of microloans to helping people make person-to-person (P2P)remittance payments to their friends and family after it found the consumer

    preference for P2P transfers in a survey at the beginning of the service.Safaricom has been able to keep a tab on the pulse of the consumers and hasbeen nimble enough to adjust its value proposition to the needs of theconsumers.

    Simple Communication -- At the start of the service, the communication wassimple, Send Money Home targeting the migrant workers. Thecommunications focus on what the single largest service (rather than all thatM-Pesa) could do was a well articulated value proposition. The video below isthe commercial on Send Money Home

    Pricing- Safaricom kept the pricing of the product very transparent and lower

    than other alternatives. Free registration and no monthly fee helped the agentsin persuading the potential user to subscribe to the service. This helped in

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    building up the customer base initially that was important for agent andmerchant recruitment.

    Store Management -- Safaricom ensured consistent branding, training andconstant supervision of the stores to deliver the right user experience. Itworked tirelessly for proper liquidity management at the stores.

    Limited KYC -- M-Pesa was not positioned as a bank alternative and hencethe Know Your Customer requirements were quite relaxed. The users wererequired to submit only the identity proof to get the service started. Thislimited KYC helped many Kenyans especially in the rural areas where theaddress proofs and other documents required by the banks are not availablewith most of the Kenyans. People who were not able to fulfill thedocumentation requirements of the bank saw M-Pesa a good alternative.

    Dedicated Customer Care Line - In Kenya, not everyone can read, sosometimes people make mistakes and send money to the wrong person, soSafaricom established back office support to assist people get the money backwhere possible. M-PESA has its own dedicated call centre with its own

    number. Safaricom ensures that a very high quality of customer care ismaintained. The strong back office support has helped the company in notonly building trust but also attracted the users who are afraid of technology.

    Criticism of the service

    Despite being touted as a financial inclusion service, M-Pesa user households aretwice more likely to have a bank account than non-user households. It is young, male,urban migrants who are driving the uptake of services customer adoption. Hence,the adoption is not uniform across social strata.

    Both agents and customers complain of cash float problems, especially in the ruralareas. Because the majority of transactions in the village are withdrawals, agents mustmaintain their cash float. They do this by making frequent trips to the bank. This can

    be problematic if the agent is not close to an urban centre, where most banks in Kenyaare located. This situation is frequent despite great efforts by Safaricom on the storeliquidity management.

    The service availability is not uniform across the country. Theservice availability is defendant on the network availability which is strong in thesouth-west corner of the country (as seen in the picture alongside). There are only2000 towers of Safaricom which are not sufficient to cover the entire country.

    All in all, M-Pesa is a great service which is brining in big benefits to the companyand the users. In my next post, I am going to talk about the economic benefits that thisservices has brought to the people of Kenya.

    http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/cash+float.htmlhttp://telecomcircle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Safaricom-Coverage-Map.gifhttp://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/cash+float.html
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    In the meantime, please leave a comment on your take on M-Pesa service and whatyou think are the reasons for its success?

    References:

    1. Three keys to M-PESAs success: Branding, channel management and pricing (byIgnacio Mas and Amolo Ngweno, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)

    2. Safaricom website (http://www.safaricom.co.ke)

    If you liked this article, you may consider subscribing to Telecom Circle to get all

    the articles in your mail box

    Enter your email address:Subscribe

    Related Posts:

    Socio-Economic Benefits of Mobile Money Transfer Mobile Driving Online Traffic To Offline Stores Is the Telecom growth story over? Mobile Money Transfer (MMT)

    Tagged as:M-Pesa,MMT, Mobile Payments

    12 Comments

    1.

    Sachin Bhavsar

    January 20, 2010 10:56 am

    Hi

    This is extremely valuable information, although most of the people wouldlike to see same success in the Indian Context.

    Having said that M Pesa can be really successful model in India, comparingthe mammoth number of Subscribers, but it is really a dampener in terms ofRegulatory compliance and acceptance of common platform between banksand telcos.

    I would state and this is my personal views that, M Pesa was succesful sincegovernment in the region was lenient in the regulatory norms or in other wordssince Regulatory was not a constraint hence it was more successful.

    http://www.safaricom.co.ke/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/benefits-of-mobile-money-transfer/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/08/mobile-driving-online-traffic-to-offline-stores/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/10/telecom-growth-story/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/05/mobile-money-transfer-mmt/http://www.telecomcircle.com/tag/m-pesa/http://www.telecomcircle.com/tag/m-pesa/http://www.telecomcircle.com/tag/mmt/http://www.telecomcircle.com/tag/mobile-payments/http://www.vfirst.com/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/comment-page-1/#comment-1630http://www.safaricom.co.ke/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/benefits-of-mobile-money-transfer/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/08/mobile-driving-online-traffic-to-offline-stores/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/10/telecom-growth-story/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/05/mobile-money-transfer-mmt/http://www.telecomcircle.com/tag/m-pesa/http://www.telecomcircle.com/tag/mmt/http://www.telecomcircle.com/tag/mobile-payments/http://www.vfirst.com/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/comment-page-1/#comment-1630
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    With 500 Million subscribers, there should be not be doubt of M Pesa gettingit own desi version soon.

    Cheers

    Sachin Bhavsar

    Reply

    2.

    Robert Syputa

    January 21, 2010 11:47 am

    Business-Social networking is the engine (framework). eMoney and exchangeis the fuel that will propel a true revolution that is far more dramatic thananything yet seen computing, mobile phones, Internet, displays, and othercontributing developments.

    Reply

    o

    Robert Syputa

    January 25, 2010 8:09 am

    Sorry about teh truncation

    I put up an index page at:http://www.agglom.com/set/78215/Business_Social_Capital_Networks

    _A_True_Revolution

    I havent found time to comment more fully yet.

    This subject is important: both of itself and also how this conspireswith business-social networking enablers and markets. I can think ofseveral worthwhile businesses that can be created.. that are alsosocially responsible.

    Robert Syputa

    Reply

    http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/?replytocom=1630#respondhttp://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/comment-page-1/#comment-1634http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/?replytocom=1634#respondhttp://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/comment-page-1/#comment-1651http://www.agglom.com/set/78215/Business_Social_Capital_Networks_A_True_Revolutionhttp://www.agglom.com/set/78215/Business_Social_Capital_Networks_A_True_Revolutionhttp://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/?replytocom=1651#respondhttp://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/?replytocom=1630#respondhttp://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/comment-page-1/#comment-1634http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/?replytocom=1634#respondhttp://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/comment-page-1/#comment-1651http://www.agglom.com/set/78215/Business_Social_Capital_Networks_A_True_Revolutionhttp://www.agglom.com/set/78215/Business_Social_Capital_Networks_A_True_Revolutionhttp://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/?replytocom=1651#respond
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    3.

    Gaurav

    January 25, 2010 12:05 pm

    Thanks for the information.Nice article Mohit M- Com revolution inIndia is yet to come. The current hurdles from regulator and platform betweenthe bankers and the operators is making the things not working. However wehave seen a significant growth interms of bill payments, recharges via M-Commerce techniques specially Airtel i am talking about. We will see thereform happening in this technology also very soon in India with regulatorrelaxing some norms and bankers and operators on a same platform. .

    Reply

    4.

    prashantn

    January 27, 2010 8:55 pm

    A similar service exists in Pakistan. The telecom partner in NOR Telecom

    company(UNINOR in India)The advantage in Pakistan, is that the UID(Unique Identification Number) isalready live, and for a successful Mobile Transfer, the UID is a prerequisite.

    This way the KYC is eliminated, at the same time, the transactions can betraced through the UID numbers.

    Reply

    5.

    Robert Gray III

    January 31, 2010 10:56 am

    I suggest you check out Beam simple money service http://www.beam.co.inlaunched in India focussed on the unbanked and recently got notimated toGSMA Global Mobile Awards 2010. Its already a hugely successful withnearly 1 million subscribers.

    Reply

    http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/comment-page-1/#comment-1653http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/?replytocom=1653#respondhttp://prashantnepayments.blogspot.com/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/comment-page-1/#comment-1664http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/?replytocom=1664#respondhttp://www.beam.co.in/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/comment-page-1/#comment-1682http://www.beam.co.in/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/?replytocom=1682#respondhttp://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/comment-page-1/#comment-1653http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/?replytocom=1653#respondhttp://prashantnepayments.blogspot.com/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/comment-page-1/#comment-1664http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/?replytocom=1664#respondhttp://www.beam.co.in/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/comment-page-1/#comment-1682http://www.beam.co.in/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/?replytocom=1682#respond
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    o

    Ian Bastow

    February 3, 2010 4:08 am

    Thanks Mohit for your very interesting articles also Robert for thelink to Beam. The convergence between mobile and SaaS will createan amazing social, economic and computing revolution over the nextdecade, and m-commerce is at the top of the list.

    Reply

    6.

    Jaco

    March 12, 2010 11:01 pm

    good article

    Reply

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    Submit Comment

    Read more: http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/#ixzz13XX3J9vy

    Mobile Money Transfer (MMT)

    Posted by Mohit Agrawal on 5/28/09 Categorized asServices,Telecom

    Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) is a peer topeer form of mobile payment mechanism which has the best prospects forsuccess amongst other forms of mobile transactions. The GSM Associationhas picked up MMT as a project and is supporting its members in embracingMMT.

    The money transfer has been in existence since the time the money wasinvented by man. Man has moved from one place to another in search of work

    and in many cases, leaving the family behind in his hometown. The familiesback home get support from the money the migrant population sends backhome. Forms of money transfer have changed over the years. The mostprimitive method being either carrying the money themselves when they visitback home or send it through a friend or acquaintance. For the last manyyears, many people have been dependant on Postal Services to remit moneyhome. This service was popularly known as money order in many countriesincluding Great Britain. Postal services are known to have branches whereeven the banks do not offer services. This envious position of postaldepartments is being taken over by mobile services as their distributionnetwork starts to out number other traditional distribution networks. Today,mobile operators have the largest distribution network in any developing

    http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/#ixzz13XX3J9vyhttp://www.telecomcircle.com/author/mohitagrawal/http://www.telecomcircle.com/category/internet-services/http://www.telecomcircle.com/category/internet-services/http://www.telecomcircle.com/category/telecom/http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/01/m-pesa/#ixzz13XX3J9vyhttp://www.telecomcircle.com/author/mohitagrawal/http://www.telecomcircle.com/category/internet-services/http://www.telecomcircle.com/category/telecom/
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    economy and hence are in a better position to remit money from one locationto another.

    The World Bank estimates that remittances totaled $397 billion in 2008, ofwhich $305 billion went to developing countries, involving some 190 millionmigrants or 3.0% of world population. The money received is an importantsource of family (and national) income in many developing economies,representing in some cases a very relevant percentage of the GDP of thereceiving countries. As per another World Bank estimates, the cost of moneytransfer varies from 2.5% to 25% depending on the sending and receivingcountry combination. This high cost of money transfer is forcing people to tryalternative ways of money transfer and telecom companies are more thanwilling to oblige them. Given the size of the mobile industry, the subscriberpenetration and the technology, it is not surprising that mobile money transferhas evolved in the cellular space. Major operators with international and inter-regional footprints such as Vodafone and Orascom Telecom have announced

    their intention to deploy mobile remittance, which they hope will act as acatalyst for the wider adoption of mWallet-enabled transaction services. Thecost of money transfer over mobile is much lower than other availablemechanisms.

    MMT started as peer to peer airtime transfer. Later, the people in the lowincome group without credit cards started to barter airtime with products. In away, mobile airtime started to be used as a proxy for cash. The balancetransfer mechanism was introduced by the carriers using electronic rechargemethod to reduce the distribution cost of low value recharges. When thecontrol of airtime transfer was given to consumers, airtime started to bepassed on and traded in exchange for goods or services. Kenya andPhilippines were the first few markets where P2P informal payment systemshave developed into more formal money transfer services.

    Initially the airtime transfer was restricted to the same carrier but later on asthe demand increased, companies like Redknee (Roaming RechargePlatform), eServeGlobal, etc. started to provide interoperability acrosscarriers. The money can be transferred using a SMS or using a platformbased on USSD or IVR. The process of mobile money transfer is detailed inthe figure below:

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    looking for easy to use, secured and cost efficient money transfer

    service. Consumers especially in the developing country may not be

    very comfortable with technology and may not have too much help at

    hand. This means that the service should be intuitive and should use

    an existing mechanism like SMS or IVR or USSD. USSD is better as it

    is more secured than other two. Consumers value security!!! The cost

    of transfer should be far lower than the other means of prevalent

    money transfer mechanisms. The service providers should work

    towards building trust amongst the consumers. It would make a lot of

    sense if the most trusted brands in the business can come together to

    offer mobile money transfer services.

    Building of Adequate Ecosystem The ecosystem in MMT would

    include the customer acquisition setup, distribution and retailer

    network, technology provider and the banks. The service providers

    should have enough outlets where the consumers can get the mobile

    money loaded on their phone (cash-in) and can also exchange the

    mobile money for cash (cash-out). Consumers are not going to travel

    10 kilometers to avail the service. Treasury management, liquidity

    management and customer transactions management are some of the

    new skills that the service provider needs to learn unless there is a

    bank that is involved in the ecosystem. Insufficient liquidity

    management can kill the service

    Regulation The future of mobile money transfer is dependant on the

    regulatory environment in various countries. The central banks across

    the world need to appreciate that the risk associated with mobile

    money transfer is low and hence they should be ready to exempt some

    of the regulations when it comes to MMT. Appropriate and

    Proportionate regulatory environment should be the approach

    followed by regulatory authorities. At the same time, the service

    providers should fully comply with the rules and regulations laid out

    with respect to KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti Money

    Laundering), CFT ( Combating Financing of Terrorism), controlled risk

    matrix, etc.

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    Service Provider Outlook the carriers should not view this service

    from the prism of their existing mobile services. Mobile money transfer

    is not just another VAS service and is neither a service to control churn

    and enhance retention. Churn reduction can be a by-product of this

    service but cannot be the objective in itself. Adequate top management

    focus should be there on this service otherwise, it may not take long

    before the service provider goes bankrupt due to liquidity and treasury

    mismanagement. There are new competencies that are required to be

    added to provide this service and unless a carrier or any service

    provider is willing to commit itself for the long haul, it is not worth

    getting into this service. It is essential to conduct a proper risk

    assessment before committing resources to this business.

    Read more: http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/05/mobile-money-transfer-mmt/#ixzz13XXknGZp

    http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/05/mobile-money-transfer-mmt/#ixzz13XXknGZphttp://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/05/mobile-money-transfer-mmt/#ixzz13XXknGZphttp://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/05/mobile-money-transfer-mmt/#ixzz13XXknGZphttp://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/05/mobile-money-transfer-mmt/#ixzz13XXknGZp
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    What you dont know about M-PESA

    by Olga Morawczynski: Tuesday, July 14, 2009

    Olga Morawczynski is a doctoral candidate at the University of Edinburgh and has

    spent more than a year investigating customer adoption and usage in both urban

    and rural Kenya. She is the author of a forthcoming CGAP brief on M-PESA and

    recently co-authoredDesigning Mobile Money Services: Lessons from M-PESA

    with Ignacio Mas.

    The story of M-PESA that most of us know usually goes as follows. The two bigplayers, Vodafone and Safaricom, got together to develop and launch M-PESA. Theyspent months testing, adjusting, and re-testing the system before it went live. Theresultan immensely popular service offering that has radically changed both the

    financial and telecommunications sectors in developing countries and spawned alucrative industry formobile money. This is not exactly how the story went, at leastnot in the early days. Vodafone, led by a powerful duo ofNick Hughes and SusieLonie, was heavily involved from the beginning. While Nick was selling the serviceidea to the executive staff at Vodafone, Susie was getting her hands dirty, so to speak,and leading the pilot in Kenya.

    Although Safaricom provided support throughout the pilot (access to desk space, asmall customer care and finance team, technical integration and support) they did notdedicate a larger team to the project until commercial launch. This is not surprising.The mobile network operator (MNO) was still focused on growing their customer

    base. The introduction of a service that radically differed from their core serviceoffering was risky. Many also questioned whether M-PESA could beat out a form ofvalue transfer that was already in placeairtime.

    So, if Safaricom was not heavily involved in the pilot then who was? There was alsoa smaller player that had a vitally important role in the conceptualization anddevelopment of the application. That is, Sagentia, a technology consultancy firm

    based out of Cambridge. The firm not only wrote the software for M-PESA, they alsodesigned the business processes, and provided operational and technical supportduring the pilot and after launch.

    Recently, I was lucky to meet the initial development team of Sagentia (now theyhave formed their own company calledIceni Mobile) at their offices just outside ofCambridge. Several interesting findings came out of this discussion. Firstly, the firmemphasized that a small and dedicated team is important, especially when two big

    players are working together. M-PESA needed a significant amount of attention fromthe beginning. The demand for such attention increased as M-PESA grew rapidlysurpassing 2 million customers within their first year. Members of the team toldstories of being on-call 24/7, and resolving system issues in the middle of the night.There is no doubt that it would have been difficult to get such attention from either ofthe MNO giants. Usually, these companies lack the resources (human, time) that are

    needed for the development of this type of system. This is especially the case if theproduct has not yet gained the confidence of those at the very top.

    http://technology.cgap.org/2009/07/14/what-you-dont-know-about-m-pesa/http://technology.cgap.org/author/Olga-Morawczynski/http://www.ed.ac.uk/homehttp://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/itgg.2009.4.2.77http://www.cgap.org/p/site/c/template.rc/1.26.1357/http://www.vodafone.com/index.US.htmlhttp://www.safaricom.co.ke/http://www.cgap.org/p/site/c/template.rc/1.26.10806/http://www.cgap.org/p/site/c/template.rc/1.26.10806/http://technology.cgap.org/2009/06/10/an-m-pesa-pioneer-nick-hughes/http://www.sagentia.com/http://www.sagentia.com/http://icenimobile.com/default.aspxhttp://icenimobile.com/default.aspxhttp://technology.cgap.org/2009/07/14/what-you-dont-know-about-m-pesa/http://technology.cgap.org/author/Olga-Morawczynski/http://www.ed.ac.uk/homehttp://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/itgg.2009.4.2.77http://www.cgap.org/p/site/c/template.rc/1.26.1357/http://www.vodafone.com/index.US.htmlhttp://www.safaricom.co.ke/http://www.cgap.org/p/site/c/template.rc/1.26.10806/http://technology.cgap.org/2009/06/10/an-m-pesa-pioneer-nick-hughes/http://www.sagentia.com/http://icenimobile.com/default.aspx
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    Furthermore, the design of the application interface and entire system underwentseveral iterations. Itbegan as a tool for the repayment of MFI loans. It was launchedas a P2P transfer service. Such changes were made because the pilot team did theirresearch, and closely monitored usage patterns. Their findings in the field were thenfed back into the design of the application. The team explained that to react to these

    changes, they focused on flexible design. This has paid off generously as M-PESAmoves across other contexts, which have very different needs and usage patterns.I ended the discussion by asking the team what they planned to focus on next. How doyou, after all, beat a success like M-PESA? They assured me that M-PESA was justthe beginning. Using the mobile as a platform, they plan to create developmentalservices that penetrate other spheres m-health, agribusiness. They further predictedthat the mobile will soon begin to revolutionize these other spaces as well. This is avery exciting proposition. If the mobile phone can penetrate and transform financialsector, which is dominated by old and powerful players, imagine what it can do inthese other spaces.

    http://technology.cgap.org/2008/05/28/can-m-pesa-work-for-microfinance-clients/http://technology.cgap.org/2008/05/28/can-m-pesa-work-for-microfinance-clients/
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    Georgetown University economist William Jack found that 38 percent of Kenyanhouseholds have at least one M-PESA user in them2. In contrast, only 22 percent ofadults have bank accounts. According to Suri and Jack, groups as diverse as farmersand children sending money back to their parents were utilizing M-PESA; a powerfuldemonstration of how mobile technology can effect social and economic changes in

    the developing world3.Despite the favorable climate for deployment of mobile applications in the developingworld, several challenges still exist. First, smart phone innovations which often donot reach developing countries - make the headlines regularly, but they represent onlya small fraction of the mobile market. According to a research report by Gartner,smart phones only comprise 12% of the mobile market, while the vast majority of

    phones are still mass-market models4. The primary reason why smart phones have notpenetrated more of the world market (besides cost) is that the infrastructure requiredto make full use of their capabilities (e.g., high-speed mobile Internet connections,national-scale phone networks) are often non-existent or bare in the developing world.

    As the UNCTAD Information Economy Report notes, the staggering increase inmobile phone subscribers in the developing world has not been matched byinfrastructural development, leading to poor service quality and consumerdissatisfaction5. In this regard, extending useful applications into the developingworld must be mediated through the pipeline of mass-market hardware. Yet the lessglamorous nature of the task should not hide its importance simple applications cango a long way in developing countries, as seen above in the case of mobile banking.To address the fundamental challenge in the mobile phone divide, MIT is pursuingnew mobile telecommunications research programs for the developing world.Entrepreneurial Programming and Research on Mobiles (EPROM) aims to fostermobile phone-related research and entrepreneurship in developing countries toaddress relevant social and political problems. In partnership with Nokia, this

    program teaches computer science students from developing countries such as Kenya,Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda the fundamentals of mobile application development,hoping to provide them with the tools to develop mobile phone applications relevantto local needs and cultures. EPROM also runs "SMS Boot Camps" at the Universityof Nairobi, which couple education and entrepreneurship in an academic setting andteaches teams of students to launch and market their own SMS services to the millionsof mobile phone users in Kenya. Thus by blending technological development andentrepreneurial leanings, EPROM hopes to contribute to the development of the social

    structure of the mobile market.Moreover, MIT students and faculty have also contributed to advances in phonesoftware technology. In May 2008, four MIT undergraduates shared a $25,000 prizeas winners in Google's Android Developer Challenge with their project, Locale6.Locale enables Android Users to efficiently manage settings on their mobile device.At the MIT Media Lab, HealthMap's Outbreaks Near Me application is currently indevelopment, allowing users to track and inform others in the community about thespread of infectious diseases. MITs NextLab class, with the tagline MobileInnovation for Global Challenges, guides students in partnership with Mexicanuniversities through the entire process of developing mobile phone software to tackle

    social challenges, turning the whole classroom itself into a cutting-edge research labwhere ideas are generated and brought to market over the course of a semester.

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    At the cusp of the new decade, the mobile phone market has entered a period ofdynamic change, in which rapid innovations are reshaping and redefining the reachand scope of both smart and mass-market phones. In this environment, potentialopportunities for entrepreneurs exist in both the hardware and software fields

    tomorrows phones are poised to be created by bold and decisive individuals todaywho not only produce exciting tools and applications but also leverage improvedtelecommunications infrastructures in order to reach under-served populations.

    References

    1. PCMagazine, 16 February 2010. Google Focuses on Mobile First,Upcoming Applications at Mobile WorldCongresshttp://blogs.pcmag.com/miller/2010/02/google_focuses_on_mobile

    _first.php. For the Mobile World Congress Website,seehttp://www.mobileworldcongress.com/conference/event_highlights.htm

    2. MIT News Office, 23 February 2010 Banking on Mobile Moneyhttp://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/mobile-money-0223.html

    3. William Jack and Tavneet Suri Mobile Money: The Economics of M-PESAOctober 2009 http://www.mit.edu/~tavneet/M-PESA.pdf

    4. Gartner Research Report "Market Share: Smart phones, Worldwide, 4Q08 and2008"http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=908313&subref=simplesearch .

    5. UNCTADs Information Economy Report 2009: Trends and Outlook inTurbulent Times Africa catches up in mobile phones but is falling behind in

    broadband accesshttp://www.unctad.org/Templates/webflyer.asp?docid=12273&intItemID=1528&lang=1#endnote16. MIT News Office, August 29 2008 MIT class project gets a gold star from

    Google http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/android-prize-0829.html

    About The Author

    Jia-Chuan is passionate about helping people unlock their potential.Hailing from Singapore, he has an S.M. in Political Science from MIT and a B.A.with first class honors in government and history from the London School ofEconomics. Jia-Chuan's past experiences include stints at the Ministries of Financeand Foreign Affairs in Singapore where he carried out policy research in the fields oforganizational logistics and international relations.

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