Page 8 - State-of-the-Industry-2013

State OF the induStry 2013

executive summary

the GSma mobile money for the unbanked Programme (mmu) has been tracking the progress of the mobile money industry for
the past few years. each year, mmu’s State of the industry report contains key fndings and insights on the growth of the sector.
this year, for the frst time, the scope of the report has been extended to include not only mobile money, but also mobile insurance,
mobile credit and mobile savings.

this report contains data from the mmu deployment tracker, which monitors the number of live and planned mobile money services for
the unbanked across the globe. it also includes data from the mmu 2013 Global adoption Survey of mobile Financial Services (hereinafter
the 2013 Global Survey), which had 110 participants from 56 countries. For some metrics, such as mobile money revenues, the amount
of data reported is not as high as for the core metrics. Where it is sensible, estimates are made to complete the data set; in this report,
numbers of mobile money accounts (both registered and active) have been estimated. We believe the fndings in this report are truly
representative of the industry overall.

mini case studies on mobile fnancial services as well as particular mobile money best practices have also been included in the report,
where they help to support or deepen the insights from the survey.

highlights from the report include:
• The mobile money industry continues to grow and is now expanding across more regions. With 219 services in 84 countries at
the end of 2013, mobile money is now available in most developing and emerging markets. While the majority of services remain
in Sub-Saharan africa, mobile money has signifcantly expanded outside of the region in 2013. the question is no longer whether
mobile money services are available, but how to ensure that the industry continues to grow sustainably.
• Competition is increasing in many markets as mobile money is becoming a mainstream product for a growing number of opera-
tors. 52 markets have 2 or more mobile money services.
• the number of active mobile money accounts is growing fast, and in June 2013, there were over 60 million active mobile money
accounts globally. an increasing number of services are reaching scale and 13 have over 1 million active users.
• For the majority of providers however, building the foundations of their mobile money services remains challenging. Globally,
only 29.9% of registered mobile money accounts were active in june 2013. Similarly, ensuring adequate agent activity should be a
priority in a number of markets.

• Several mobile money services, particularly those that have already created solid foundations, have made progress in developing
their product ofering, extending the digital fnancial ecosystem and growing revenues.

• Product ofering: airtime top-up and P2P transfer remained the most adopted products, but in 2013, bulk payments
was the fastest growing product with numbers of transactions increasing at an annualized growth rate of 617%. rollouts
of new products have been most successful where a solid distribution network and a large, active customer base have
already been established.
• Ecosystem development: With more mobile money services maturing, an increasing number of operators are recognis-
ing the ecosystem opportunity. in 2013, transactions involving external companies have been driving the growth in mobile
money globally, representing 29% of the value transacted in june. these transactions are also growing much faster than
airtime top-ups and on-net transfers.
• Revenues: mobile money has been fnancial rewarding for deployments that have reached scale. Five operators within our
sample reported that mobile money contributed to over 5% of their revenues. Savings from airtime distribution can also
represent an interesting indirect beneft for mnOs: 10 reported selling more than 10% of their airtime through mobile money.

2