Mobile money is increasingly being cited in forums across the globe as the panacea for bringing the financially excluded masses-especially in the developing world-in to the fold of formal finance. However, barring a few highly successful examples, most mobile money deployments have failed to deliver on the promise of mobile money. This begs the question of why some of these deployments are more successful than the others. In this study, we attempt to examine some notable mobile money deployments across the globe to search for an answer.
We will examine key influencers, which have determined the success of mobile money initiatives worldwide. The elements studied include:
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Regulatory landscape
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Socio-economic conditions
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Stage of market development
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Profile of service providers and role of supporting institutions
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Managing the customer value proposition
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Channel management
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Technology and user interface
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Segmentation, targeting and positioning
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Branding, marketing and incentives
It needs to be noted that while the aspects examined in this note here largely cover the environmental as well as the internal factors, blindly adopting these do not automatically lead to success. All these factors are context specific and need to be examined, adapted or even completely thrown out depending on the realities of the market in which the deployment is active.