True Money and M-PESA: Two Unique Paths to Scale

This review describes the True Money model, a Thailand based mobile money service and compares its approach to that of M-PESA, in Kenya.

True Money (True) was launched in 2005. It is now used by six million customers and the system processes over $900 million in electronic payments and 120 million transactions per year. The review states that:

• True’s approach to scaling an e-wallet and payment service is interesting from a financial inclusion perspective;
• True’s success illustrates how market conditions, customer needs and operator assets shape the mobile money opportunity in every market;
• True’s success is an example of an operator responding to market conditions;
• M-PESA provides more valuable lessons on engaging agents and instilling trust;
• Thailand has sophisticated banking infrastructure and a far-reaching ID system that Kenya does not;
• These two differences beget differences in service offerings, distribution strategy and initial customer segment focus.

The report concludes that M-PESA and True are both success stories that are impressive in their own right. They both merit study and indicate that operators should define a strategy that is responsive to the context in which they operate.