Paper
NextGen Mobile Wallets: The Slim Billfolds May Prove More Lucrative
Examining issues regarding mobile wallets
2 pages
This MicroSave Briefing Note discusses the increasing importance of mobile wallets (m-wallets). Mobile phones are equally interesting to both ends of the economic spectrum, although there is a sharp divide between what an iPhone with an e-wad of credit cards can do in a shopping mall, and what more basic phones with prepaid cards can offer the less affluent.
The paper examines the different needs of m-wallet users, business cases for different types of m-wallets, varieties of m-wallets and barriers to m-wallet adoption. Conclusions include:
- Wide range of players wish to get into the m-wallet business, because of the revenues and profits involved, although it is complex and problematic;
- M-wallet participants enable government benefits, healthcare and insurance, especially when they are willing to enter developing markets;
- Main barriers to m-wallet adoption include signing up vendors of new technology, splitting the minute income from every transaction, making profits and persuading potential customers to try m-wallets;
- Eliminating elective use of m-wallets solves most of the problems associated with them;
- Seamless cooperation among all players is important for m-wallets to be used as financial inclusion tools.
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