You might say Kenya-based Safaricom (M-PESA) helped start a banking revolution, one coming to the world from Africa. "Africa is the Silicon Valley of banking," says Carol Realini, executive chairman of Obopay, a California-based mobile-banking innovator.
"The future of banking is being defined here," Realini says. "The new models for what will be mainstream throughout the world are being incubated here."
Mobile banking has been available for years in Japan and elsewhere, but only on a limited basis. M-Pesa now has 19,000 agents today. Of Safaricom's 16 million customers, 12 million have M-Pesa accounts — this in a nation of 39 million people.
Finance: Kenya's Banking Revolution
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Africa is the Silicon Valley of Banking
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Mobile Banking: The mobile banking revolution: Nigerian style
There is no shortage of startups focused on the African mobile banking opportunity just in Nigeria. Some of the contestants are "bank focused," and include:
Stanbic IBTC
Ecobank
Fortis MFB
Among the "bank-led" ventures are:
UBA/Afripay
GT Bank/MTN
First Bank of Nigeria
Among the "non-bank led" ventures are:
Pagatech
Paycom
M-Kudi
Chams
Eartholeum
E-Tranzact
Parkway
Monitiz (Is this the Monitise brand in Nigeria)
FET
Corporeti
And that's just Nigeria.
Mobile Banking: The mobile banking revolution: Nigerian style
Stanbic IBTC
Ecobank
Fortis MFB
Among the "bank-led" ventures are:
UBA/Afripay
GT Bank/MTN
First Bank of Nigeria
Among the "non-bank led" ventures are:
Pagatech
Paycom
M-Kudi
Chams
Eartholeum
E-Tranzact
Parkway
Monitiz (Is this the Monitise brand in Nigeria)
FET
Corporeti
And that's just Nigeria.
Mobile Banking: The mobile banking revolution: Nigerian style
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
M-PESA is the Model for Perhaps 60 Other Ventures
See presentation for a description of how it works.
The basic idea of M-PESA is that the 100,000 small retailers in Kenya who already sell mobile-phone airtime, in the form of scratch cards, can also register to be mobile-money agents, taking in and paying out cash. More than 17,600 retailers have signed up as M-PESA agents—far outnumbering Kenya’s 840 bank branches. When a customer is registered with the system, paying in cash involves exchanging physical money for the virtual sort, called “e-float”, which is credited to his mobile-money account. E-float can then be transferred to other users by mobile phone, and exchanged for cash by the recipient, who visits another agent.
read more here
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Amazon Cloud Storage Traffic Soars
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Business Model Change for Hulu?
Hulu originally hoped to create an advertising-supported online video site that essentially was an archive for television programming, operating much as a digital video recorder service.
But ad revenue has been disappointing, and the owners disagree on what to do about the service. So now it isn't so clear what Hulu might become.
Some spectulate that Hulu might in the future become a sort of online cable service. Instead of a warehouse of episodic content, Hulu could become a full-fledged online cable operator. That means live shows and video on demand, all accessed through Hulu.
That might work for the content providers, but it won't help multichannel video entertainment providers.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Mark Zuckerberg on SNL
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Amazon Prepping Netflix-Like Streaming Service:
Amazon.com appears to be readying a service that would make 5,000 movies and TV shows available to watch instantly, at no incremental charge, for members of the online retailer's $79-per-year "Prime" free-shipping membership program.
The service would provide "unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming" of 5,000 movies and TV shows' with content similar to what is available through Netflix's streaming component. Amazon's service, though, would be limited to standard-definition video.
The notable observation here is that Amazon will try to create a business model that does not rely directly on incremental revenue, but rather on increasing subscribers to another existing service Amazon deems important. That's similar to Apple selling music and video to sell iPods and iPads. Netflix, Comcast and others, on the other hand, have less wiggle room, since their video businesses are about selling video.
Comcast, of course, also is trying the Amazon tactic, tying a fixed-line cable subscription to its mobile and untethered online video service. Still, it always is dangerous when a new competitor proposes to give away what another company sells.
Amazon Prime is a membership program that provides free two-day shipping as well as one-day shipping for $3.99 per item on certain purchases.
Currently Amazon offers a selection of more than 75,000 movie and TV show rentals or purchases through PCs, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and connected-TV devices, including those from TiVo, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Vizio and Roku.
Amazon.com's agreement to buy full ownership of LoveFilm, a European DVD rental and movie-streaming service, confirms the e-commerce giant intends to beef up its digital-video offering.
Operating in the U.K., Scandinavia and more recently Germany, LoveFilm's service is very similar to that of Netflix in the U.S. But it is well behind the American company, both in subscribers—1.6 million versus 17 million—and in the amount of streaming content it has licensed.
The service would provide "unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming" of 5,000 movies and TV shows' with content similar to what is available through Netflix's streaming component. Amazon's service, though, would be limited to standard-definition video.
The notable observation here is that Amazon will try to create a business model that does not rely directly on incremental revenue, but rather on increasing subscribers to another existing service Amazon deems important. That's similar to Apple selling music and video to sell iPods and iPads. Netflix, Comcast and others, on the other hand, have less wiggle room, since their video businesses are about selling video.
Comcast, of course, also is trying the Amazon tactic, tying a fixed-line cable subscription to its mobile and untethered online video service. Still, it always is dangerous when a new competitor proposes to give away what another company sells.
Amazon Prime is a membership program that provides free two-day shipping as well as one-day shipping for $3.99 per item on certain purchases.
Currently Amazon offers a selection of more than 75,000 movie and TV show rentals or purchases through PCs, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and connected-TV devices, including those from TiVo, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Vizio and Roku.
Amazon.com's agreement to buy full ownership of LoveFilm, a European DVD rental and movie-streaming service, confirms the e-commerce giant intends to beef up its digital-video offering.
Operating in the U.K., Scandinavia and more recently Germany, LoveFilm's service is very similar to that of Netflix in the U.S. But it is well behind the American company, both in subscribers—1.6 million versus 17 million—and in the amount of streaming content it has licensed.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
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