Mobile phone transactions need a big push
18 Feb 2011
There are four billion mobile phones in the world today. Three-quarters of these are in the hands of people in the developing world, with half of all new growth expected to come just from China and India alone.
This ubiquitous availability is accelerating phone use not only as a means for sending and receiving money, but also for making payments for day-to-day transactions (bills, shopping, tickets, recharge, etc). And this is boosting local economies in Sub Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Typically the spread of new ideas and technologies follow the logistic curve popularly known as the 'S curve' – defined by a few early adopters, few very late, but the bulk somewhere down the middle. One can't usually predict the timing of the 'bulge', but the trend is inexorable, given what has happened till now.
Where are we on this curve, and what are the prospects for mobile phone-based transactions in India?
Recent initiatives have an element of one step forward, one step back.
Mobile banking guidelines were out in 2008, and over two years later the volume of mobile banking related transactions are to cross a few hundred thousand a month instead of the tens of millions that it ought to be by now. So far, more than 40 banks, including ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, StanChart, Corporation Banks and Cosmos Bank, now offer various mobile banking related services.
