India Digital Summit 2008: M – Commerce in India. Money Transfer Through Mobile is the Way to Go!
M Commerce is at a very early stage. Its about purchase and sale of goods and services through the mobile with the use of a financial institution. Purchase and sale of VAS content cannot be classified as M – Commerce.
The different areas that come under M – Commerce
a) Travel and Ticketing – convenience is the key. Mobiles are and will re iterate their time saving devices.
b) Movie Ticketing
c) Bill payments – making payments to utility and service companies
d) Merchant Transactions & Retail Transactions – Mobile Internet transactions over the Internet is difficult as of now due to low speed of the Internet
e) Money Transfer – transfer from person to person through a financial intermediary
The difference between e commerce and m commerce is that e commerce is limited to PC users with an Internet Connection. With M commerce moving to an SMS platform among other things, M commerce is open to almost the entire mobile population.
An important barrier to m commerce is the state of mobile networks today because there is a risk of transactions not maturing due to poor networks.
For M commerce an eco system between application developers, financial institutions, and mobile phone networks. Simplicity is the key to proliferation of M commerce coupled with the idea of developing trust with audiences.
M – Commerce is expected to grow because:
- Penetration of mobile is 4 – 5 times than PC
- Its 24 x 7
- Mobiles are expected
- Mobiles are expected to be at 500 million in 2010
Challenges:
- Security with respect to payment through mobiles. No 3D security is still available
- Speed of GPRS – only 128 kbps
- User interfaces for mobile commerce
- SMS vs GPRS vs Voice
An important thing to note is that with respect to any new technologies that are easy to use – a one time trial generally gives users the confidence to pursue repeat use.
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Hi,
As per a recent article in ET last week,Airtel has strted international money xfer operations for its mobile customers in a tie up wit Western Union..Lets c how Vodafone & RCOM respond to the same..
Cheers,
Ranjit
If mobile commerce is to a reality in India, the banks in India will need to jack up the telebanking services and the integrity of their data base system considerably. As mobile banking leaves little proof in the hands of customers ( please note – in the hands of customers)
the banks will need to build trust.
I have recently had three experiences with a leading bank in India, which leads me to believe that the integrity of the data systems is seriously impaired. They have no clue wo is making what entries. Moreover in all cases phone banking is unable to resolve anything at all. In my case, it took three visits to the brach to get the mistake rectified.
The large number of Phising mails, look alike websites and duplicate IMEI numbers on phones can leave the users with no comfort. Nor is any comfort available with the regulatory authorities.