FEATURE M-PAYMENTS
technologies can create,” says Trench. “But the
radical changes are always the consequence
of something pretty boring and basic, like
Operators and banks
recharge.” All of the players in the chain are
hoping that users will become familiar with
are not seeking one
initiating transactions from their phone,
another out with any
which will lead to an easier run for subse-
quent m-payment service launches.
real energy, because
Whether it works or not, this service has
already achieved a great deal—purely in
they cannot seem to terms of bringing so many different organisa-
agree on the conditions
tions together with a single goal in mind. It’s
difficult to imagine it happening in the UK,
of their relationships
or the US. There’s nothing unique about the
structure of the financial and mobile indus-
tries in Serbia, says Trench, it’s simply that
the organisations are “hungry for change”.
Banks and operators have healthy businesses
in general and aren’t always motivated to
innovate. Looking for a bank partner for
In what he reckons may be a world first, the “The banks are getting a revenue stream, a a mobile banking project in Asia recently,
service is launching with every operator in the modest one, it has to be said, because these Trench found that “the banks couldn’t be
country, some 16 banks and one credit card are very low value transactions. But the fee bothered to get out of bed.”
company (another is expected to join soon). It that the bank will charge for a transaction He stresses the complexity of the project:
has taken U-paid three years to persuade all of of this size is lower than the commission an “If you want to do anything that’s very large
these organisations into the consortium. operator pays to a merchant. So there’s the and very scaleable—effectively a consumer-
But launching with just one operator and opportunity for them to put some extra mar- level service—you are going to have to deal
one bank is largely pointless, says Trench, gin on top of that and turn the bank into an with multiple parties. And that makes the
because the addressable market is so small. m-commerce merchant. And that’s the future whole thing very complicated.” It took months
Users have to be customers of both institu- we see: Recharge, bill payment, m-commerce to sign up the first operator and bank. There’s
tions and are unlikely to change banks, or purchases. But you have to have the critical strength in numbers, though: the 14th bank
mobile providers, to access a slightly more mass of customers,” he says. was on board, says Trench, “after a 20-minute
convenient method of topping up their pre- The barrier to building that critical mass phone conversation”.
paid account. “To get the utilities you need is registration. This is a headache for any It is the absence of this kind of universal
to have a large number of users because you project and persuading users to register buy-in that has restricted the development of
need the volume. To get the volume you need their credit card details isn’t going to be m-payment services in Western markets. Be-
all the operators and to get all the operators easy. Every member of the consortium, the cause the services don’t represent significant
you need to be able to prove that you can get banks, the credit card companies, the opera- revenues in comparison to other projects, the
the majority of the banks,” he says. tors and U-Paid itself, is making a financial banks and the operators lack motivation. If
While operators don’t see any incremental contribution to the marketing campaign. players in these markets don’t shake off their
revenue from the service—some are even Users will receive text alerts about the new lethargy—and they are showing few signs of
offering the top-up text messages free of service when their balance runs out and the doing so at the moment—then we will see the
charge—they could stand to reap significant traditional advertising media will be hit over developing markets taking the lead in m-pay-
savings in terms of voucher generation and the coming months. ments, where necessity really is the mother
distribution and commission that they pay “When people look at new technologies, they of invention. Developed mobile markets could
to distributors. tend to focus on the radical changes that new be in for some useful schooling. ®
For a full archive of Mobile Communications International features
please visit telecoms.com. Register for free and receive daily bulletins
and our popular round-up A Week in Wireless.
36 Mobile Communications International | First for news, best for business
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48