I think that the best way to kickstart a working micropayment infrastructure may lie with mobile phone operators – the billing and tracking infrastructure is in place, and they don’t have the baggage that the credit card issuers do.
Here’s an interesting piece about such a scheme in Kenya.
The ping of a text message has never sounded so sweet. In what is being touted as a world first, Kenya’s biggest mobile operator is allowing subscribers to send cash to other phone users by SMS.
Known as M-Pesa, or mobile money, the service is expected to revolutionise banking in a country where more than 80% of people are excluded from the formal financial sector.
Apart from transferring cash – a service much in demand among urban Kenyans supporting relatives in rural areas – customers of the Safaricom network will be able to keep up to 50,000 shillings (£370) in a “virtual account” on their handsets.
- Mary Meeker’s 2014 Internet Trends report - May 28, 2014
- Andreessen-Horowitz raises $1.5B for its new fund - February 1, 2012
- WestBridge launches India “evergreen” fund - November 15, 2011
I think the key to these is having a well defined use case. Some of the payment solutions that claim that I want to pay my grocer 10 rupees from my cellphone just dont get my vote. I think money transfer is an interesting application — Check this out — its a large market and something that is not efficiently handled today, especially for small transactions.
Payments for web transactions and phone transactions is another interesting one, but might see lower adoption rate because of availability of good alternatives in form of credit/debit card and COD.
As far as I remember, Rajesh Jain has invested in M-cheque.
I hope that one or two players get critical mass in facilitating payments in India. There are many trying
1. m- cheque
2. jigrahak
3. paymate
4. GISIL
5. OboPay
6. Atom Technologies
7. Wallet 365
Then there are bill pay plays
1. Bill Desk
2. Easy Bill
3. Bill Junction
I am sure there are others or some who may be in stealth mode. People can add to this list and comment. Should be an interesting discussion.
Obopay recently got funding from NEA-IndoUS ventures for its Indian entry.
http://www.neaiuv.com/portfolio_obopay.htm
Its interesting to see how this field emerges in India
Udhay,
Nice article. Makes a lot of sense in predominantly un-banked countries such as Kenya. However, I disagree with the article that it is the world’s first. Globe telecom in Phillipines has already implemented the p2p payment solution using SMS long time back.
http://www.myglobe.com.ph/gcash/about.asp
Where is India in this regard?