The Age of M-Pesa
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The Age of M-Pesa
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Re: The Age of M-Pesa
#2Interesting take the mpesa back story. For those interested in the current state of the mobile money industry in Africa and other developing countries I can recommend GSMA [1].
While I think the "send money home" value proposition story in Kenya was crucial, it doesn't really explain why mobile money works (or doesn't work) as a service. This is basically all to do with massive agent networks. The business model isn't as easy to get going as people assume, and most telcos failed to pull it off. Regulation (or lack of it) was also very critical for Kenya's success.
In general mobile money is fascinating to examine though. And it's an absolute game changer in Kenya!
Re: The Age of M-Pesa
#3Interesting take the mpesa back story. For those interested in the current state of the mobile money industry in Africa and other developing countries I can recommend GSMA [1]. While I think the "send money home" value proposition story in Kenya was crucial, it doesn't really explain why mobile money works (or doesn't work) as a service. This is basically all to do with massive agent networks. The business model isn'…
I think one important component to the success of M-Pesa is Safaricom's near-monopoly on the mobile telephony market. If you are not the only big player in the market it's going to be much harder to get your mobile money network running straight away because you have to think of support by other telcos and competition on pricing.
I spent some time in Kenya and M-Pesa is very practical, I used it regularly for small payments. One thing that I found a bit frustrating is the very high transaction costs - way higher than you would ever pay with regular banking. The (poor) users don't really have a choice though, so Safaricom is able to make massive profits.
Re: The Age of M-Pesa
#4Thanks to the poster, thanks to the writer. Super interesting.
Re: The Age of M-Pesa
#5Interesting take the mpesa back story. For those interested in the current state of the mobile money industry in Africa and other developing countries I can recommend GSMA [1]. While I think the "send money home" value proposition story in Kenya was crucial, it doesn't really explain why mobile money works (or doesn't work) as a service. This is basically all to do with massive agent networks. The business model isn'…
Interesting thanks for sharing that link. Slightly unrelated but what are some potential opportunities for business in Kenya for those living abroad but want to return?
Re: The Age of M-Pesa
#6Interesting take the mpesa back story. For those interested in the current state of the mobile money industry in Africa and other developing countries I can recommend GSMA [1]. While I think the "send money home" value proposition story in Kenya was crucial, it doesn't really explain why mobile money works (or doesn't work) as a service. This is basically all to do with massive agent networks. The business model isn'…
I think one important component to the success of M-Pesa is Safaricom's near-monopoly on the mobile telephony market. If you are not the only big player in the market it's going to be much harder to get your mobile money network running straight away because you have to think of support by other telcos and competition on pricing. I spent some time in Kenya and M-Pesa is very practical, I used it regularly for small p…
Not completely similar but here in Norway we have a number of telephone companies but we still have a working mobile money solution (Vipps) since the banks actually managed to cooperate to create an (mostly) buttery smooth experience that doesn't seem to care a bit (as seen by the customer) about what phone, what plan, what provider or what bank you have.
Edit: IIRC - anyone who remembers exactly should feel free to update - it was a startup that created the first version, then I think it was bought by one of the major banks but now it seems to work completely decoupled.
Re: The Age of M-Pesa
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think one important component to the success of M-Pesa is Safaricom's near-monopoly on the mobile telephony market. If you are not the only big player in the market it's going to be much harder to get your mobile money network running straight away because you have to think of support by other telcos and competition on pricing. I spent some time in Kenya and M-Pesa is very practical, I used it regularly for small p…
Not completely similar but here in Norway we have a number of telephone companies but we still have a working mobile money solution (Vipps) since the banks actually managed to cooperate to create an (mostly) buttery smooth experience that doesn't seem to care a bit (as seen by the customer) about what phone, what plan, what provider or what bank you have. Edit: IIRC - anyone who remembers exactly should feel free to…
Vipps was developed by DNB (the bank) from the start, and outcompeted all other banks' offerings. It didn't have much to do with telecoms at all.
Re: The Age of M-Pesa
#8Money transfer systems in developing countries are fascinating. Hawala[1] is one notable example – a remarkably fast, efficient and cost-effective system based on interpersonal relationships and trust.
Re: The Age of M-Pesa
#9Interesting take the mpesa back story. For those interested in the current state of the mobile money industry in Africa and other developing countries I can recommend GSMA [1]. While I think the "send money home" value proposition story in Kenya was crucial, it doesn't really explain why mobile money works (or doesn't work) as a service. This is basically all to do with massive agent networks. The business model isn'…
Interesting thanks for sharing that link. Slightly unrelated but what are some potential opportunities for business in Kenya for those living abroad but want to return?
Farming or technology for farmers
Re: The Age of M-Pesa
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think one important component to the success of M-Pesa is Safaricom's near-monopoly on the mobile telephony market. If you are not the only big player in the market it's going to be much harder to get your mobile money network running straight away because you have to think of support by other telcos and competition on pricing. I spent some time in Kenya and M-Pesa is very practical, I used it regularly for small p…
Not completely similar but here in Norway we have a number of telephone companies but we still have a working mobile money solution (Vipps) since the banks actually managed to cooperate to create an (mostly) buttery smooth experience that doesn't seem to care a bit (as seen by the customer) about what phone, what plan, what provider or what bank you have. Edit: IIRC - anyone who remembers exactly should feel free to…
While Vipps works well today, compared to MPESA it was developed when the market had already matured and you could rely on every user owning a smartphone. Telenor and DNB actually tried to release something similar to MPESA years before, but since the application had to be installed on the SIM card you had to be both a DNB and Telenor customer [1].
Vipps is not decoupled today, but has been merged with the e-identity (BankID) and e-invoicing (eFaktura) to form a monopoly behemoth owned by most banks in Norway with DNB as the largest non-majority owner.
[1] Source in Norwegian: https://www.digi.no/artikler/telenor-og-dnb-gir-opp-valyou/3...