Latest MMT News: Integrating airtime top-up with mobile money transfers
Date Posted: 13 November, 2009
Integrating airtime top-up with mobile money transfers to provide a unique VAS for prepaid customers
Singapore based TransferTo was founded in 2006 by Eric Barbier, the company's current CEO. It operates a global airtime remittance network interconnecting mobile operators' prepaid users. It allows foreign workers to recharge the prepaid mobile phone of their relatives back home via SMS.
Real time airtime transfers enable customers to send micro amounts, complementing regular money remittances; 200 million migrants remit $300 billion (USD) yearly. Mobile operators can offer this service to ethnic segments - traditionally, an underserved market with a high telecom spending profile.
TransferTo is also available for retailers, banks and money transfer operators. With a global reach covering 5 continents, TransferTo gives instant access to Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, Poland and many countries!
This week I spoke to, Eric Barbier about how their business is taking the mobile money industry by storm and about the formation of new partnerships to increase distribution of the airtime service.
How does TransferTo fit into the mobile money ecosystem?
With over 3 billion subscribers in developing countries, prepaid mobile phones have dramatically improved the lives of all users. It has become a tool of economic empowerment in compensating for inadequate infrastructures, allowing information to move more freely and unleashing entrepreneurship.
Transferring airtime from a prepaid phone serves a different purpose when compared to transferring money. Airtime is sent as gift to family and friends on many occasions (religious celebrations, birthday, weddings, etc). Its recipients greatly outnumber money transfer recipients. As an Indian money changer in Singapore, (a user of our service) recently quoted, "money just for wife, top-up for wife, friends and family back home, I top-up 4 times a month". International airtime transfer does not compete with money transfer; it serves as an ideal complement to it.
Who are the main users of your airtime network?
The main users are to be found in countries with large migrant populations. They belong to the ethnic segment of the host country's mobile operator client base. Most of the users of our airtime network originate from the Indian subcontinent, the Philippines, Indonesia, China and Africa. They mainly work in the Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.
In which regions do you primarily operate?
Our network connects over 75 mobile networks in 27 countries and service in excess of 100 migration corridors. Singapore based TransferTo has a strong presence in Asia and the Middle East. It is currently developing its network in Europe, Africa and the Americas.
How easy was it to set up a global airtime remittance network?
When TransferTo launched this new service for the first time in 2006, it had to overcome scepticism with regards to the added value the service could provide. The main reason for this attitude was that value transferred to the recipient was provided in terms of airtime and not in terms of money. This "post paid mobile" centric approach has been progressively overcome by the growing success of airtime remittance among mobile phone prepaid users. The latter have rapidly understood the great value the service is bringing, in particular when sending small value amounts from $1 to $10 (USD) where traditional money remittance channels are inefficient.
Tell us about the success of the Ramadan promotion for international top-up services in alliance with Indosat in Indonesia. How did you learn to address the needs of a specific target market, what did you offer them and which marketing methods helped to educate consumers?
TransferTo provides more than a technical service to the mobile operators it interconnects with, it acts as a business partner identifying and implementing initiatives to further increase service awareness and user benefits. TransferTo identified Ramadan as a perfect opportunity for Indosat to launch a promotion and drove the initiative. In particular it ensured that Indonesian clients of mobile operators in the sending countries were fully informed of the promotion via diverse marketing approaches like, for examples SMS campaigns. The promotion launched in July 2009 and initially proposed during three months was such a success that it will continue until December 2009. Thanks to the promotion, airtime senders are getting a better offer and airtime recipients a greater value.
At the second annual MMT Global Summit last month, TransferTo announced a major partnership with Saudi Telecom Company (STC). What does this partnership consist of and how has it been adopted?
This partnership enables STC, the largest telecommunication provider in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a leading player in the Middle East, to provide cross border airtime transfer for the first time in the Gulf region. The service named "STC International Credit Transfer" allows the strong expatriates communities residing in the Kingdom to send airtime to top-up the prepaid phones of their relatives in India, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
Launched in July 2009, the STC service has been an instant success with the volume of monthly airtime transferred cross border ramping up to exceed one million transactions after two months of service and with an estimated two million to be reached by the end of the year.
Exactly how does airtime transfer compliment MMT?
Airtime is the cornerstone of the prepaid mobile phones business. It is the first service to come from a mobile wallet. Airtime is consumed, reloaded or transferred by three billion of prepaid users worldwide.
TransferTo recently secured a $3 million (USD) investment from Ingenico Ventures. How will this funding be used and what impact will it have on the current airtime business?
The investment of Ingenico Ventures demonstrates the industry trust in the potential of the cross border airtime exchange market, and TransferTo's ability to operate globally. Currently, the market is still in its development phase. We estimate that within three to four years the market will generate revenues in excess of $10 billion USD per year. The funding will help the company to develop of a strong network in Europe and in the Americas complementing its existing network in the Middle East and Asia.
Eric Barbier will deliver a keynote presentation at MMT APAC on 08 December, Edsa-Shangri La, Manila. Visit the MMT APAC website for further information www.mobile-money-transfer.com/apac.
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