Mobile Money Users to Double in Two Years

March 9, 2011

Mobile money applications in developing economies - that is using a mobile phone like many of us in the developed world use credit and debit cards - are making huge strides. So much so, that the British high-tech research firm, Juniper Research is predicting the number of active users of mobile money services will double over the next two years, exceeding 200 million.

The need to access basic financial services in developing countries, and to do so on the cheap, will drive much of this short-term growth. By 2015, nearly 40% of mobile money users will be in Africa and the Middle East, according to Mobile Money Transfers & Remittances: Markets, Forecasts & Vendor Strategies 2011-2015, a new report from Juniper.

Person-to-person  P2P payment apps in the developed world are driving a goodly share of this short-term growth, also. (Think iPhones.)

At present, domestic money transfers, airtime top-ups and bill payments account for at least 60% of all mobile money applications, the report notes.

Howard Wilcox, a senior analyst and author of the report, suggests the sheer number of mobile money initiatives competing in different markets makes it difficult to predict with any certainty which will emerge the ultimate winners. But there are a few obvious applications driving adoption.

"Our research found that, money transfers, bill payments and airtime top-ups constitute the typical top three mobile money services in an operator's portfolio. Increasingly, though, merchant payments are being offered and operators can, via partnerships with supermarkets, for example, enable people to pay for their shopping this way," Wilcox said.

The wild card in all this are evolving international banking standards for identifying money launderers and suspected terrorist funding, known as KYC (for know your customer). Mobile applications present obvious limitations to customer monitoring that could stymie adoption.

Mobile Money Transfers & Remittances: Markets, Forecasts & Vendor Strategies 2011-2015 contains comprehensive forecasts for all key parameters of this emerging market. Additional details and pricing information are available at Juniper's Web site.

154 million people worldwide received micro-loans in 2007; Just 13,000 of these loans were made to Americans.

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