The Best Business Opportunity In The Information Age: Mobile Microfinance

It is estimated that 750 million households have no bank accounts.

In Mexico, cash accounts for 79% of the total payment, which is 91% in India and 82% in China.

Even in the United States, 80 million people do not have bank accounts.

However, most people in the world own mobile phones.

Over the past few years, many emerging companies have combined these factors to form a family industry to help people use mobile phones to get banking services.

Obopay is part of the trend of providing banking services to those who do not have bank accounts all over the world.

The company is headquartered in Redwood City, California, founded by a semi retired software executive, Carol Realini, after she returned from Congo in 2002.

Realini noted that there was no public service in Kinshasa, capital of Congo.

This is a city with a population of 8 million, but only a few blocks have been electrified.

But the city has wireless towers.

She recalled: "when I arrived there, the first thing I noticed was that cell phones were everywhere.

In a city where no public service is available, everyone is equipped with a mobile phone.

On the trip, Realini carried a prepaid phone. She needed to go to the store to recharge the phone.

In the shop, she noticed that most people carry bags with money.

Realini said, "that store looks like a bank.

People are waiting in line with a bag of money.

When they arrived at the sales counter, they exchanged a pocketbook for a small card.

Then they use the newly purchased recharge card to recharge the phone.

Realini has been inspired and has the idea of creating Obopay.

She thought, "Oh, it can be recharged."

If people can communicate with each other by phone and text messages, they can use mobile phones to send money to each other. "

The potential of mobile micro payment also attracts other entrepreneurs.

In India, Sanjay Swamy created mChek and signed contracts with 45 major banks such as India Industrial Credit Investment Bank (ICICI), India National Bank (State Bank of India), Citibank (Citibank), Visa, and mobile telecom operator, and used these partners to help push its service to the market.

The first MChek is located in Sri Lanka, and now it supports 5000 small businesses, including retailers, as the POS system.

Swamy predicts: "all small retailers will not need to use the credit card system."

Maybe these small businesses will not need to use credit cards, but they will definitely need credit.

Therefore, the cooperative relationship between mChek and VISA helps them connect mobile payment to Visa authorized credit account.

In addition, Swamy has begun experimenting with one of the largest microfinance institutions in Andhra Pradesh, southern India.

His hypothesis is that every village has a small selling point, which is sold from cigarettes and gum to onions and other conveniences.

If microfinance institutions can handle all the credit procedures through mobile phones, then these stores can act as clearing agents or the role of the ATM as well known, and can also pay cash.

The main plan of Carol Realini is to build a large-scale Obopay in India.

Although she is keen on the opportunities brought by microfinance, she has a more conservative attitude towards short-term prospects.

Realini said: "I am not sure whether microfinance industry has the logistical technology they need.

And we are the liaison station between the customer and the microfinance industry.

I understand her concern because I learned from many experts that the technology adoption of microfinance institutions is still in its infancy, which makes the cost of loan management high and inefficient.

Despite this, I am very excited about the prospects of mobile banking, although mobile banks may take several years to affect the poorer people at the lowest social level.

It is encouraging that entrepreneurs such as Realini and Swamy are working hard to solve this problem.

Before being accepted by users, technology is usually adjusted by early adopters to easy access to users.

Sramana Mitra is a technology entrepreneur and strategist in Silicon Valley.

She has created three companies and has written a commercial blog, Sramana Mitra on Strategy.

She holds a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).