Skip to main content

Mobile Money Transfer Revenue will Reach $4 Billion

As mCommerce services continue to gain new users across developing regions -- such as sub-Saharan Africa and emerging Asia -- the early-adopter nations have experienced a mobile money revolution that has empowered the local economies.

While in some early-adopter markets -- such as Kenya and Uganda -- mobile money usage already occurs across more than 50 percent of the adult population, there are still significant sections of the un-banked population it has yet to reach.

According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, mobile network service providers are now benefiting from the boom in mobile money transfer services -- with $2 billion in revenues forecast for this year and $4 billion annually by 2018.

Market Development in Africa

The new research points to the African continent as the leading mCommerce market. In fact, several regional mobile network operators -- such as Vodacom Tanzania and MTN Uganda -- are now generating more than 10 percent of their revenues from mobile money transfers.

Meanwhile, Safaricom’s MPESA service, the trailblazer in the sector, recorded mobile money revenues of more than $330 million in the latest financial year, making it the most successful mobile or online money transfer service worldwide.

According to the Juniper study findings, recent surges in both transaction volumes and values were being driven by increased implementation of both cross-border and intra-national remittance interoperability.

The research cited the traffic uplifts engendered by recent agreements between Safaricom and MTN (for the Rwanda-Kenya corridor) and by national interoperability agreements in markets such as Tanzania and Pakistan.

Opportunities for mCommerce Advancement

There's been a shift in service provider requirements, with the majority now seeking to deploy smartphone applications in tandem with Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) mobile money transfer solutions.

However, the research cautioned that while inadequate government regulation still constrained growth in a number of markets, in some cases low adoption or activity rates could be attributed to the policies of mobile network service providers.

"There are too many instances where service marketing is inappropriate or incorrectly targeted; where the message simply isn't reaching the desired audience," said Dr Windsor Holden, head of consultancy and forecasting at Juniper Research.

The research also observed that in Nigeria, a number of services had failed to gain repeat usage because of the high cash-out fees, while savings accounts in other markets had withdrawal fees that were inappropriate for low-income users.

Popular posts from this blog

Digital Talent Demand Exceeds Supply in Asia-Pac

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul

How Cloud Fuels Digital Business Transformation

Across the globe, many CEOs invested in initiatives to expand their digital offerings. User experience enhancements that are enabled by business technology were a priority in many industries. Worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 21.7 percent to a total of $597.3 billion in 2023 -- that's up from $491 billion in 2022, according to the latest market study by Gartner. Cloud computing is driving the next phase of digital transformation, as organizations pursue disruption through technologies like generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), Web3, and enterprise Metaverse. Public Cloud Computing Market Development "Hyperscale cloud providers are driving the cloud agenda," said Sid Nag, vice president at Gartner . Organizations view cloud computing as a highly strategic platform for digital transformation initiatives, which requires providers to offer new capabilities as the competition for digital business escalates. "For example, generativ

Mobile Device Market Still Awaiting Recovery

The mobile devices market has experienced three years of unpredictable demand. The global pandemic, geopolitical pressures, supply chain issues, and macroeconomic headwinds have hindered the sector's consistent growth potential. This extremely challenging environment has dramatically affected both demand and supply chains. It has led to subsequent inflationary pressures, leading to a worsening global cost of living crisis suppressing growth and confidence in the sector. In tandem, mobile device industry stakeholders have become more cautious triggering market uncertainties. Mobile Device Market Development Operating under such a backdrop, the development of mobile device ecosystems and vendor landscapes have been impacted severely. Many of these market pressures persisted throughout 2022 and now into 2023, borne chiefly by the smartphone market. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, worldwide smartphone shipments in 2022 declined 9.6 percent Year-over-Year