Yu urges Safaricom to open up M-Pesa to other networks
Yaani these guys have thrown in the towel, M-PESA is just killing them.... http://www.telecompaper.com/news/yu-urges-safaricom-to-open-up-m-pesa-to-oth...
That is gonna happen... Where did they fail ??? It was not easy to open agency for zain/yu etc.. for example in zain, the kiosk management concept like in safcom was non-existent.. Mabbe they did not have enough resources/funds to create and manage the kiosks ?? I remember applyin for zain-zap agency after i got mpesa dealership -- they never responded.. And I was like -- seriously ?? On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 3:54 PM, Kinuthia Ngugi <kinuthia.ngugi@gmail.com>wrote:
Yaani these guys have thrown in the towel, M-PESA is just killing them....
http://www.telecompaper.com/news/yu-urges-safaricom-to-open-up-m-pesa-to-oth...
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Sir Isaac Newton said he has seen farther because of standing in the shoulders of giants... Safaricom has stood in the shoulders of giants like MJ, Kenyans, GOK, and CCK On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 4:27 PM, ndungu stephen <ndungustephen@gmail.com>wrote:
That is gonna happen...
Where did they fail ???
It was not easy to open agency for zain/yu etc.. for example in zain, the kiosk management concept like in safcom was non-existent.. Mabbe they did not have enough resources/funds to create and manage the kiosks ??
I remember applyin for zain-zap agency after i got mpesa dealership -- they never responded.. And I was like -- seriously ??
On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 3:54 PM, Kinuthia Ngugi <kinuthia.ngugi@gmail.com>wrote:
Yaani these guys have thrown in the towel, M-PESA is just killing them....
http://www.telecompaper.com/news/yu-urges-safaricom-to-open-up-m-pesa-to-oth...
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Good people, That story's from my interview with the yu country manager whose excerpt is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J-wD3iCqR0. Do any of you guys think Safaricom's competitive advantage with M-Pesa will be severely dented if it opened up M-Pesa to its competitors? I know, is the Pope Catholic? Humour me all the same. Thanks, LARRY On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 4:58 PM, Joseph Maina <mainasoft00@gmail.com> wrote:
Sir Isaac Newton said he has seen farther because of standing in the shoulders of giants... Safaricom has stood in the shoulders of giants like MJ, Kenyans, GOK, and CCK
On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 4:27 PM, ndungu stephen <ndungustephen@gmail.com>wrote:
That is gonna happen...
Where did they fail ???
It was not easy to open agency for zain/yu etc.. for example in zain, the kiosk management concept like in safcom was non-existent.. Mabbe they did not have enough resources/funds to create and manage the kiosks ??
I remember applyin for zain-zap agency after i got mpesa dealership -- they never responded.. And I was like -- seriously ??
On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 3:54 PM, Kinuthia Ngugi <kinuthia.ngugi@gmail.com
wrote:
Yaani these guys have thrown in the towel, M-PESA is just killing them....
http://www.telecompaper.com/news/yu-urges-safaricom-to-open-up-m-pesa-to-oth...
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@ Joseph, Larry. Actually I submit to you that the “great” Safaricom is standing on the shoulders of dwarfs...and not just any dwarfs..blind ones!...before you call me a mad man...lets closely examine the situation. Indeed Safaricom has had great success in Kenya a country of 40 million but its product is very relevant to the estimated 3Billion underserved consumers in the world.Instead of exploiting this opportunity and extending the service to all MNO’s across the world, Vodafone has taken a closed loop “in-house” approach extending the service to only its affiliates in select countries. Meanwhile payment companies have quickly seen the global viability of an mpesa type product and are quickly getting the assets in place to offer this functionality to MNO's and banks across the world. If you noticed Visa recently bought Fundamo,a company with a product very similar to Mpesa for $240 Million. MasterCard announced a partnership with Western Union in December among other developments this gives you an indication of where the industry is heading…Soon every MNO in the world will have an "Mpesa" of their own and the payment networks will push for global interoperability…Safaricom with its closed loop approach will be a very very small fish playing only in Kenya...It has won the Kenya market battle..but lost the global war.
I wouldnt be so quick to spell doom on vodafone just yet. Other markets are not quite like the Kenyan one. as most multinationals imagined that Kenyans can't handle credit or debit cards and wound up excluding the middle class,equity bank and safaricom embraced them. It was a gap that vodafone filled and the same product has failed spectacularly in Tanzania and South Africa. how do you explain that? On 2/1/12, John Maina <mwasjunior@gmail.com> wrote:
@ Joseph, Larry. Actually I submit to you that the “great” Safaricom is standing on the shoulders of dwarfs...and not just any dwarfs..blind ones!...before you call me a mad man...lets closely examine the situation. Indeed Safaricom has had great success in Kenya a country of 40 million but its product is very relevant to the estimated 3Billion underserved consumers in the world.Instead of exploiting this opportunity and extending the service to all MNO’s across the world, Vodafone has taken a closed loop “in-house” approach extending the service to only its affiliates in select countries. Meanwhile payment companies have quickly seen the global viability of an mpesa type product and are quickly getting the assets in place to offer this functionality to MNO's and banks across the world. If you noticed Visa recently bought Fundamo,a company with a product very similar to Mpesa for $240 Million. MasterCard announced a partnership with Western Union in December among other developments this gives you an indication of where the industry is heading…Soon every MNO in the world will have an "Mpesa" of their own and the payment networks will push for global interoperability…Safaricom with its closed loop approach will be a very very small fish playing only in Kenya...It has won the Kenya market battle..but lost the global war.
-- Regards, Mark Mwangi markmwangi.me.ke
I am not sure M-PESA has failed in Tanzania. IMO, M-Pesa's failures in other countries stems from regulatory approach, where banks in those countries, after seeing what M-Pesa was capable of, lobbied the regulators in the country to over-regulate the product, which in result means that there is little use case for it. In SA, M-Pesa is run off a bank whose clientèle is mostly well off.
Interesting points, I've updated my blog with Bob Collymore's response to yu here http://t.co/8QremHXt On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 10:41 AM, Dennis Kioko <dmbuvi@gmail.com> wrote:
I am not sure M-PESA has failed in Tanzania.
IMO, M-Pesa's failures in other countries stems from regulatory approach, where banks in those countries, after seeing what M-Pesa was capable of, lobbied the regulators in the country to over-regulate the product, which in result means that there is little use case for it.
In SA, M-Pesa is run off a bank whose clientèle is mostly well off.
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I don't think its in safaricom best interest to open up m-pesa. 90% of guys i know on safaricom complain of high call charges but stick because of convenience m-pesa gives them. With other MNO offering better voice quality and a lower price which safcom lacks its only m-pesa holding guys back. -- Regards, Job Njogu Muriuki, Phone: (+254) - 722906324 | 736333075 Skype: heviejob | Yahoo: heviejob Address: 42665 00100 Nrb
On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 11:07 AM, Job Muriuki <muriukin@gmail.com> wrote:
I don't think its in safaricom best interest to open up m-pesa. 90% of guys i know on safaricom complain of high call charges but stick because of convenience m-pesa gives them. With other
Of course there are other reasons to stick with Safaricom like true mobile broadband since 2005/6 (not sure when). Methinks they are the more dynamic operator at least with respect to adopting and rolling out improvements to mobile.
MNO offering better voice quality and a lower price which safcom lacks its only m-pesa holding guys back. -- Regards, Job Njogu Muriuki,
Phone: (+254) - 722906324 | 736333075 Skype: heviejob | Yahoo: heviejob
Address: 42665 00100 Nrb
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Of course there are other reasons to stick with Safaricom like true mobile
broadband since 2005/6 (not sure when).
Methinks they are the more dynamic operator at least with respect to
adopting and rolling out improvements to mobile.
You have a valid point on broadband on the go but when it comes to cash and locking someone up on a given platform is just wrong. Imagine if I cannot pay you via cheque just cause your bank and my bank are not interlinked. I think what CBK needs to have a "clearing house" like banks do and for mobile money it can be real time. If safaricom really has superior products on the mobile front let them let us receive cash from yucash, airtel and others money and reflect as m-pesa balance or M-pesa to the others. Its about time CBK and CCK acted to enhance competition.
--
Regards, Job Njogu Muriuki, Phone: (+254) - 722906324 | 736333075 Skype: heviejob | Yahoo: heviejob Address: 42665 00100 Nrb
I don't think it is Safaricom's job to help its competitors remain competitive. I also think the platform should be opened to other providers ie banks, e-commerce merchants etc but not necessarily other mobile networks. There should be a common protocol used to interface between the various networks but this is a government policy issue not something vodafone should do as a private firm. On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 11:50 AM, Job Muriuki <muriukin@gmail.com> wrote:
Of course there are other reasons to stick with Safaricom like true
mobile broadband since 2005/6 (not sure when).
Methinks they are the more dynamic operator at least with respect to
adopting and rolling out improvements to mobile.
You have a valid point on broadband on the go but when it comes to cash and locking someone up on a given platform is just wrong. Imagine if I cannot pay you via cheque just cause your bank and my bank are not interlinked. I think what CBK needs to have a "clearing house" like banks do and for mobile money it can be real time. If safaricom really has superior products on the mobile front let them let us receive cash from yucash, airtel and others money and reflect as m-pesa balance or M-pesa to the others. Its about time CBK and CCK acted to enhance competition.
--
Regards, Job Njogu Muriuki,
Phone: (+254) - 722906324 | 736333075 Skype: heviejob | Yahoo: heviejob
Address: 42665 00100 Nrb
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-- Regards, Mark Mwangi markmwangi.me.ke
They can even offer it as open source to them, they will never succeed until they understand that customers are buying a brand, not just sending and recieving money. What I always say is that its not that yuCash, Airtel Money or Orange money have problems, in fact they are superior to Mpesa in many ways, but its the perception the market has of a particular brand. Everyone knows Saf is an expensive network, and we sit there complaining, they increased call rates, no one migrated. MNP came, no one migrated (I hear less than 50,000 ported then returned). Its because the Safaricom brand is reliable. Its because Safaricom delivers! Mpesa is riding on a brand called Safaricom, a brand that delivers as promised, not like Airtel that keeps telling people lies month in month out (3G has never been launched since June 2011, woe unto you if you ported! Very few cases are success ports), calls are ok on Airtel and YU, very cheap on Orange, its because they only sell voice, and a very small broadband. Kenyans want an all inclusive brand that's reliable. Yu becomes erratic out of Nairobi, same to Airtel and Orange. Only the Safaricom signal is consistent through out the nation with 3G and Voice in equal measure. They can't handle the customers now with their small market share. Can't imagine the chaos of either of the NMO's (YU, Airtel or Orange) were offered 1/3 of Safaricom's customer base. On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 11:50 AM, Job Muriuki <muriukin@gmail.com> wrote:
Of course there are other reasons to stick with Safaricom like true
mobile broadband since 2005/6 (not sure when).
Methinks they are the more dynamic operator at least with respect to
adopting and rolling out improvements to mobile.
Further to my brief, if you want to measure how strong a brand is, check the sim card pricing. Though Safaricom is expensive, their Sim cards are selling at 50/- on the lowest side, and they sell pretty fast. Its the market stupid! The others sell sub 20/- or are even offered for free with a branded key holder or gift to boot! Its not Safaricom's fault that they are dorminant. Its just that the other players have refused to learn the market perceptions. They should built on their brands to succeed. On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 12:10 PM, Peter Osotsi <peter.osotsi@gmail.com>wrote:
They can even offer it as open source to them, they will never succeed until they understand that customers are buying a brand, not just sending and recieving money.
What I always say is that its not that yuCash, Airtel Money or Orange money have problems, in fact they are superior to Mpesa in many ways, but its the perception the market has of a particular brand. Everyone knows Saf is an expensive network, and we sit there complaining, they increased call rates, no one migrated. MNP came, no one migrated (I hear less than 50,000 ported then returned).
[OT] Some very funny comment I just wonder what happened "...*In any case Mpesa is proprietary to Vodafone and under license to Safaricom and it is therefore not in our gift to further license it to any other player*." Is this to mean that Vodafone can unplug mpesa at will or for any other reason deemed fit to them?
@Ndwex that is exactly what it means. Ukoloni mambo leo On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 1:29 PM, Nd'wex Common <flexycat@gmail.com> wrote:
[OT] Some very funny comment I just wonder what happened
"...*In any case Mpesa is proprietary to Vodafone and under license to Safaricom and it is therefore not in our gift to further license it to any other player*."
Is this to mean that Vodafone can unplug mpesa at will or for any other reason deemed fit to them?
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-- Regards, Mark Mwangi markmwangi.me.ke
Me thinks YU,Orange and Airtel should do what the Kenyan opposition did to defeat Moi in 2002, form a mobile money platform with enough scale to compete with Mpesa. But I'm pretty sure safcom is already working on other initiatives to stay ahead. They are more likely to launch the next Mpesa than any of its competitors are. As it is safcom is becoming a platform that allows other partners to make money off it. Much like FB or Google. Sustainability 101....me thinks it will soon become almost impossible to compete against safcom. On 2/1/12, Mark Mwangi <mwangy@gmail.com> wrote:
@Ndwex that is exactly what it means. Ukoloni mambo leo
On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 1:29 PM, Nd'wex Common <flexycat@gmail.com> wrote:
[OT] Some very funny comment I just wonder what happened
"...*In any case Mpesa is proprietary to Vodafone and under license to Safaricom and it is therefore not in our gift to further license it to any other player*."
Is this to mean that Vodafone can unplug mpesa at will or for any other reason deemed fit to them?
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-- Regards,
Mark Mwangi
markmwangi.me.ke
As have said earlier, these operators (Airtel, Yu) are a "Happy go lucky lot". They hope to ride on others and hope business will develop on its own without tangible investment and hard work The operators should just invest enough capital on their money transfer services. They should be ready to put billions on rolling out outlets like safaricom did. They should in addition pay dealers good commission to encourage setting up outlets. They should target to have an outlet for at least two of Safcom. This way, people will slowly start using the services. It is all about investing in the oulets. ________________________________ From: John Doe <fivepings@gmail.com> To: Skunkworks Mailing List <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke> Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 10:22 PM Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] Yu urges Safaricom to open up M-Pesa to other networks Me thinks YU,Orange and Airtel should do what the Kenyan opposition did to defeat Moi in 2002, form a mobile money platform with enough scale to compete with Mpesa. But I'm pretty sure safcom is already working on other initiatives to stay ahead. They are more likely to launch the next Mpesa than any of its competitors are. As it is safcom is becoming a platform that allows other partners to make money off it. Much like FB or Google. Sustainability 101....me thinks it will soon become almost impossible to compete against safcom. On 2/1/12, Mark Mwangi <mwangy@gmail.com> wrote:
@Ndwex that is exactly what it means. Ukoloni mambo leo
On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 1:29 PM, Nd'wex Common <flexycat@gmail.com> wrote:
[OT] Some very funny comment I just wonder what happened
"...*In any case Mpesa is proprietary to Vodafone and under license to Safaricom and it is therefore not in our gift to further license it to any other player*."
Is this to mean that Vodafone can unplug mpesa at will or for any other reason deemed fit to them?
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-- Regards,
Mark Mwangi
markmwangi.me.ke
_______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke ------------ List info, subscribe/unsubscribe http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
A while back; Mpesa rights/technology was purchased by Bill Gates foundation and reapplied in some disadvantaged Middle East countries like Afghanistan under new label MPAISA.. It seems to be gaining popular ground - with test carried out on payrolls. In countries like Senegal -- when these 'restrictions' and with limited investment resources - they adapted by using Petrol Stations like Total, Shell which are widely spread across the country; with a combination of SMS. Uganda seems to be gaining ground too -- but not under Vodafone; MTN seems to understand customers more in their host countries. The emerging pattern here it seems :
The more developed a country is; the less people need the service; and the more are the banking regulations. This is not to say that the poor/underprivileged do not need the technology -- But unfortunately, as we discussed before the early adopters of technology are employed youth.
For the less developed countries - the focus is on economic improvements; and if such a service emerges that promises to bridge the gap; the regulations are willing to give it a chance
participants (13)
-
Dennis Kioko -
Job Muriuki -
John Doe -
John Maina -
Joseph Maina -
Kinuthia Ngugi -
Larry Madowo -
Mark Mwangi -
Nd'wex Common -
ndungu stephen -
One Murithi -
Peter Osotsi -
Shadrack Mwaniki