Can anyone really patent the idea of mobile payments/wallets? The algorithms used, maybe but not the idea.
If you continue reading you'll see obopay was launched in 2005. Safaricom OTH launched mpesa in march 2007 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa) so i doubt  obopay copied them.

As to the question of who copied whom (generally speaking) - does it really matter, so long as you can pick up an idea extend it to something better? I mean if today I could come up with a similar payment solution but that works better than mpesa should i not do it just because safaricom did it first?

-Billy


2009/11/12 Solomon Mburu Kamau <solo.mburu@gmail.com>
On 12/11/2009, Joram Mwinamo <joram.mwinamo@gmail.com> wrote:
> Did safaricom patent Mpesa? Coz Obopay seems like a copy and paste of Mpesa
> only focusing on a much larger scale.
>
> on this page
>
> you find the following description. The part in red for me seems fishy, like
> she is taking the credit for a service that is already working perfectly
> here?Something doesnt add up. Maoni?
>
> in 2005, Carol Realini founded Obopay to meet the nascent need for an
> industry leader in mobile payments. Today, Obopay — through partnerships
> with financial institutions such as Citi and MasterCard and mobile carriers
> — is using mobile phones to deliver financial services that empower people’s
> life and work.
>
> Carol founded Obopay after traveling in Africa and recognizing that while
> mobile phones were ubiquitous, many people didn’t have access to even the
> most basic banking services. Recognizing the need and opportunity in both
> industrialized and developing nations, Carol designed Obopay’s business
> model to promote social and economic development throughout the world, by
> providing mobile savings, money transfer, and payments to people everywhere.
>
> --
> Sent from my Voice Recognition Watch©
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> God is not an excuse for lack of discipline
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,but that we are powerful
> beyond measure.It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.There is
> nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure
> around you.As we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people
> permission to do the same.
> As we are liberated from our fear,our presence automatically liberates
> others.
>

Let MJ tell us!

If Carol came to Africa and saw the need to develop Obopay, then she
must have come to Kenya and saw what M-Pesa was doing and perfected on
it. Her's is quiet better than M-Pesa since she has linked up with
Master Card, something that we lack here.

Generally, this could be copycat
--
Solomon Mburu
P.O. Box 19343 - 00202 Nairobi
Cell: (+254-0) 735 431041

Man is a gregarious animal and enjoys agreement as cows will graze all
the same way to the side of a hill!

AND

It is better to die in dignity than in the ignomity of ambiguous generosity!


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