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Money-on-Mobile Looking to Become the PayPal of India via SMS

Text Messaging Featured Article

Money-on-Mobile Looking to Become the PayPal of India via SMS

 
April 30, 2014

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By Michael Guta,
TMCnet Contributing Writer


The financial infrastructure in many developing countries is minimal or nonexistent. The effect of not having a reliable system translates into slow growth because financial institutions are not able or won't infuse cash into the economy in the form of loans and other assistance. The result is a depressed economy and a population that doesn't see a way out of its socioeconomic status. An affordable and effective way out of this predicament for these countries is using mobile commerce and texting technology.


In India, Shashank Joshi has founded Money-on-Mobile to deliver an alternative and viable platform to allow Indians to use their cell phones to purchase items, pay bills and more by taking advantage of the ubiquity of text messaging. Shashank Joshi and Harold Montgomery, the CEO of Calpian, the company funding Money-on-Mobile, have been highlighted in a great article by Cheryl Hall on the Dallas News.

Calpian Inc., provider of integrated suite of payment processing services and related software enabling products, acquired significant ownership Money-on-Mobile (MOM) in April of 2012. This collaboration has allowed MOM to grow steadily by providing store valued mobile payment services with simple SMS text functionality.

The majority of the Indian population, which currently stands at 1.3 billion, doesn’t have bank accounts, credit cards or access to traditional banking. On the other hand, there are 903.7 million cell phone subscribers with text-enabled devices in the country, which makes it the ideal environment for implementing mobile commerce solutions.

The MOM platform so far has more than 32.5 million unique phone numbers and more than 200,000 retail partners that offer the services the company provides. Currently it is handling 300,000 transactions a day, and with a customer base of more than 900 million, there is a lot of potential upside as the company moves forward.

While the numbers are big, the average transaction is only $1.27 totaling around $12 million every month. It is therefore essential to scale in order to see profits. According to the report by Hall, MOM has to reach 300,000 retailers and 750,000 daily transactions to be profitable.

With 70 percent of the Indian population living in rural villages, the need for the service MOM provides is very important to these communities. They can now make payments and send money to their loved ones without having to pay high fees to unregulated merchants and can avoid illegal money transfer methods. Given the wide availability of text messaging, even in remote areas, it is a technology that holds any number of opportunities to help connect people around the world and make their lives a little easier. 




Edited by Alisen Downey
Text Messaging Homepage





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