Page 17 - State-of-the-Industry-2013

Part 1 - mOBile mOney

now 52 markets with two or more mobile money services, compared to just 40 at the end of 2012 and 33 at the 52
increased competition…

The mobile money landscape is becoming increasingly competitive, and this is especially true in Sub-Saharan
africa where mobile money is already available in 36 of 47 countries in the region (see fgure 2). the majority of
deployments launched in 2013 were in markets where mobile money services were already available. there are

end of 2011. twenty-seven markets have three or more services. Stifer competition means that consumers at
the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) will have more options and mobile money providers will be forced to continu- markets have 2
or more mobile
ously improve their value proposition and the quality of their services if they want to retain customers. money services

The fact that a large number of markets now ofer multiple mobile money services highlights the opportunity for interoperability.
today, most mobile money services are closed loop systems. With these services, electronic money has to be converted to cash if it is
sent to someone on another mobile money service. While this situation is not optimal from a customer experience perspective, it also
reduces the opportunity for service providers to derive further transaction revenues from mobile money. as competition increases
and operators seek strategies to increase the total size of the pie, we expect to see more mobile money providers exploring the op-
portunity of interconnecting their mobile money schemes.

Mergers of mobile money services contributed to the emergence of larger mobile money services and intensifed competition
in some markets. in uganda, the acquisition of Warid by Bharti airtel allowed airtel money to consolidate its position in the mobile
money market. With more than 7.4 million GSm subscribers and 39% market share, airtel has emerged as a serious competitor to
mtn’s mobile money services which counted over 3.5 million registered users at the end of 2012 . Soon after airtel money and Warid
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Pesa merged at the end of Q2, airtel announced reduced mobile money rates, sparking a price war with mtn, intensifying competi-
tion in the market, and accelerating subscriber growth. mobile money services were also merged in haiti and in Cambodia . 8
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Figure 2
number of live mobile moneY services for the unbankeD
bY countrY (december 2013)

TWO OR MORE
MOBILE MONEy SERVICES
ONE MOBILE
MONEy SERVICE
PLANNED MOBILE
MONEy SERVICE

5. Philip levin, “mobile money making its mark with major groups: millicom, mtn, vodafone, and Orange” (june 3, 2013), available at
http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/mobile-money-making-its-mark-with-major-groups-millicom-mtn-vodafone-and-orange
6. “airtel & Warid launch new mobile money rates” (September 20, 2013), available at http://www.nbs.ug/details.php?option=acat&a=978
7. in haiti, almost a year after digicel acquired voila, digicel migrated to a new mobile money platform and fully integrated their respective mobile money services, tchotcho mobile and t-Cash. See “digicel’s tchotcho mobile
migrates to utiba’s mobility Platform” (august 7, 2013), available at http://www.digicelgroup.com/en/media-center/press-releases/products-services/digicels-tchotcho-mobile-migrates-to-utibas-mobility-platform-represents-
the-frst-completed-implementat
8. at the beginning of 2013, CellCard’s mobile money service Cellcard Cash merged with Cambodia’s largest mobile money service Wing, and seems to have enjoyed solid growth in the months since. See Stuart alan Becker, “FtB
and Wing partner to bring viSa cards to the masses” (may 31, 2013), available at http://www.phnompenhpost.com/special-reports/ftb-and-wing-partner-bring-visa-cards-masses and “electronic payments company Wing set
to transfer a billion dollars this year” (may 10, 2013), available at http://www.phnompenhpost.com/special-reports/electronic-payments-company-wing-set-transfer-billion-dollars-year
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