Trade Finance Using Social Media to Assess Creditworthiness

Connecting small business owners and entrepreneurs with trade finance is the mission Rwandan company Kountable accomplishes using mobile phones and a method of assessing creditworthiness using social networks. The whole point is fast and accurate due diligence on ability to repay a loan.

Launched in May 2015, deals ranging from as low as US$2500 and as high as $500,000 have been facilitated, says Chris Hale, Kountable CEO.

Kountable is not a loan originator, however. It provides assistance to lenders and borrowers. Basically, Kountable reduces risk when a supplier and financing entity agree to enable delivery of  goods to a merchant.

“We help you purchase raw materials, stock or inventory and get paid by your end client so you don’t have to worry about funding these purchases as part of your transaction,” says Hale.

“We are focused on business finance needs that require short term support which does not exceed one year and though there are no limits on how much, we want to benefit as many businesses as possible so we want to keep the bulk given to each business within the range that we have handled in the past ($2500-500,000),” Hale says.

Kountable measures creditworthiness by evaluating an entrepreneur’s social capital—their network of contacts and relationships. In cases where an applicant does not actively use social networks, a score can be constructed from email data.

The scoring alogorithm, as with any other method, assumes that one’s past business relations, activities and behavior tend to predict future behavior.

Ideally, though, an applicant’s kScore is generated by measuring the activity and size of social networks (social networking sites) as well as phone and text messaging contacts and email profiles.

Based on an algorithm that looks at several dimensions of all that data, applicants are scored with a numerical value between 500 and 1000 that is a proxy for creditworthiness based on social capital.

The company says it can make a credit score in five to 10 working days.

Kountable works to raise funds in the United States for such entrepreneurs using the kScore, offering lower rates than otherwise would be available.

The Kountable business model is a two-percent-per-month financing fee on the value of loans made by third parties.

The significance is that, since about 1995, private activities have vastly surpassed the value of official development assistance as sources of capital inputs in developing countries. Kountable is part of that trend.

source: World Bank

U.S. Internet Access Costs 0.4% of Gross National Income Per Capita

International comparisons always are difficult. National domestic product or income, currency exchange rates, population size, country size, household size and size of rural population all make a difference.

In the developed world overall, Internet access costs about 1.7 percent of gross national income per capita, according tot he International Telecommunications Union.

On that score, U.S. Internet access costs 0.4 percent of GNI per capita, about third best in the world.

1. Macao China -- .2% of GNI per capita

2. Kuwait -- .4%

3. United States -- .4%

4. Switzerland -- .6%

5. Luxembourg -- .6%

6. Andorra -- .6%

7. United Kingdom -- .7%

8. Japan -- .7%

9. Norway -- .7%

10. Hong Kong -- .7%

As with all cross-country comparisons, one has to adjust for conditions on the ground.

SingTel and SoftBank Best Exemplify Hybrid Business Strategy

SingTel and SoftBank are perhaps the best examples of business strategies that blend traditional communications businesses with newer digital content and application revenues.

It is sometimes hard to understand the strategy, but even harder to execute. In some cases, telcos might hope to create captive services. That is the strategy for mobile entertainment services, for example, where a mobile service provider directly owns a streaming media service.

In addition to direct revenues, indirect monetization from advertising might be possible.

One other angle is to partner with young Internet companies that eventually can emerge as key drivers of direct and indirect revenue. In such cases, a mix of revenue models could emerge. In some cases, perhaps equity value is created. 

In other cases, it is conceivable that capacity and transport revenues are earned. In yet other cases the value is indirect.

Singtel's regional network of telecom alliances, covering a total of some 570 million subscribers, has already attracted taxi-hailing app GrabTaxi, which recently agreed to give users in Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia the option of paying their fares using the Singtel mobile wallet service, for example.

source: EIN News

Does it Matter Which Ecosystem Participant Provides Zero-Rated Mobile Data Access?

Is zero rating of mobile data usage a violation of network netrality norms or only a marketing tactic? MIcrosoft India thinks it simply is a value of adding value for buyers of Lumina smartphones.

Microsoft India plans to sponsor 4G mobile data access for Bharti Airtel customers who buy Lumia 4G smartphones, though the deal is not finalized. As presently envisioned, buyers of Lumia devices will get use of twice as much data.

Airtel 4G customers purchasing the Lumia 950 or 950 XL will get free data bundled with the devices, as well as the  Lumia 550. 

Some would argue there is no difference between this proposed practice and the well-established practice whereby buyers of Kindle content can have that content delivered over some mobile networks without incurring any usage of a mobile data plan.

Nor, in principle, is this any different from promotions offered rather routinely by mobile service providers, where bonus data is provided for purchase of some plans, or for customers who switch from another provider.

In principle, does it matter whether it is an advertiser, a device supplier, an app provider or a mobile service provider that offers "no incremental charge" mobile data access?

Netflix Programming Exclusivity Works, Survey Finds

Access to original programming is a key method by which networks attempt to gain distinctiveness in a competitive market. And there is at least some evidence that the tactic works.

A survey conducted by RBC Capital Markets found that original content affected the buy decision for 49 percent of respondents.

More than 25 percent of respondents said that having access to original content convinced them a great deal, or a good amount, to subscribe to Netflix.

Original programming, as a strategy, really helps Netflix, as it does other networks.  

Does SDN Need a Faster Version of TCP/IP?

The transport layer of the protocol stack has direct implications for use of software defined networking, many would argue, and therefore creates a need for SDN-optimized versions of TCP/IP.

So it is that the new OpenFastPath  Foundation, founded by Nokia Networks, ARM and industrial IT services player Enea, seeks to create an open source TCP/IP stack which can accelerate the move towards SDN in carrier and enterprise networks.

AMD, Cavium, Freescale, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Linaro also are supporting the effort to create a standardized, accelerated TCP/IP stack that provides top performance for SDN-ready network functions.

For network operators, the new fast-path stack should lead to reduced IP latency, higher capacity and thus faster packet forwarding, and lower implementation costs.

Public Cloud Services Market Will Grow 19% in Middle East, North Africa in 2016

The public cloud services market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is projected to grow to 19.3 percent in 2016 to total $ 880 million, up from an estimated $737 million in 2015, according to Gartner analysts.

Business Process as a Service (BPaaS), the largest segment of the cloud services market in MENA, is expected to grow 7.3 percent year over year  in 2016 to reach $266.2 million.

The fastest-growing market, cloud management and security services, is projected to grow 29.3 percent in 2016, year over year.

Gartner predicts that in 2019, total public cloud services spending in the MENA region will rise to $1.45 billion, with Software as a Service accounting for 22.6 percent of the market.

followed by Cloud Management and Security, growing 21 percent, and Infrastructure as a Service growing 19 percent in 2019, year over year.