Going mobile

Hi, VERY late in the day but - belated new year greetings ! Thanks for being here.

The months since the last post were spent on a whole lot of the usual seasonal things both personal and professional that one does this time of year . One highlight was a vacation back home in India where I encountered first hand the tremendous strides that mobile is making there cutting right across geography and demographics. When I asked the domestic help at my parents' home how he was spending new year's eve , he told me he was watching a movie. Gang outing ? Nope. On his phone. Nice ! 

A snapshot of  the growth in mobile users between 2006-2012 in the top five markets.

Country           2006 (Mn.)          2012 (Mn.)         CAGR (% p.a.)

China                    461                     1,112                        16 %

India                      166                        865                        32 %

USA                       230                        303                          5 % 

Indonesia                 64                        282                         28 %

Russia                    151                        262                        10 %

This is from an interesting Financial Times report on 4G development in China. 

(click for a larger view)

Growth in mobile payments

A good update on mobile payments from Bloomberg Businessweek ( read here). Interesting if unsurprising to note the growth in  mobile payments over the last two years .

While these developments are more for 'people like us' - either in developed countries or urban smartphone owners in the rest of the world - mobile banking has in fact already had a significant impact on the lives of millions of  less privileged people in lesser developed societies like East Africa , Philippines , Bangladesh , India , etc.( Here's a great Economist report on the spectacular success of  M-PESA in Kenya). 

Reading the Businessweek report , I am very interested to see how m-commerce pans out in those societies. The mobile phone is already the most penetrated modern device there while banks are both severely underpenetrated and mostly unviable. In such a scenario , could the SIM card emerge as some sort of a debit card in the village , with the phone enabling payments for small purchases when ready cash is not at hand ? Will consumer goods companies engaged in extensive rural marketing programs,  like India's Hindustan Unilever in India for example, tap into the mobile ecosystem to build value for their consumers and themselves ? Maybe partner with Telecom companies on a sharing basis given the high volumes involved ? 

Interesting to watch this space from a mass marketing - not to mention the socio-economic - point of view.

Extracting big value from small change !

Here's a very good example from the Egypt telecom industry of  a smart creative solution from their agency based on a solid if everyday insight : small grocery stores substituting Vodfaone recharge cards for the low-value items they hand out to their customers in lieu of small change. 

While this is directly for existing Vodafone customers , what I like about the idea  is that it can also aid acquisition by placing the brand in front of non-customers. In context , assuming , say , an average of 5 such transactions per day per store and around a 40% share for Vodafone in Egypt , that'd work out to around 4-5 million 'impressions' worth of brand name exposure per month among non-users. Not bad for a secondary benefit ! Add to that the brand equity potential - the likelihood of favorable value association amongst a  low end demographic - and it's really cool , isn't it ! 

Well done, JWT Cairo !