Commerce Txt

Commerce TxtBy: Jim PuckaloFor the Course FILM315 @Queen's University, Kingston, ON

Phone companies havelong allowed individuals..

Image courtesy of the U.S.National Archives on Flickr

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..to purchase “air-time”and to send this creditto other users.

(i.e., pre-paid cell phonecredit that can be usedfor voice or SMScommunication)

Source: The Economics of M-Pesa

In March 2007, Safaricomlaunched M-PESA, an SMS-based money transfer systemthat allows individuals to..

Image courtesy of the U. S.National Archives

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Deposit

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Send

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Withdraw..

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..funds using their cell phone.

Source: The Economics of M-Pesa

M-Pesa =

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M(obile)

+

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Pesa (Swahili for “Money”)

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In Kenya..

Money can bezappedzapped from onepart to another inseconds.

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For people used to queuing at banksfor hours to pay bills or school fees,the M-PESA money-transfer service isa godsend.

No wonder it is used by 9.5m people, or 23% of thepopulation, and transfers the equivalent of 11% ofKenya’s GDP each year.

Source: The Economist

Use M-Pesa

23%

If we think of Canada's population..

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1 in 4

Canadians wouldbe using M-Pesa

Or all of Bell Mobility's customers..

20%Of Canadians

use Bell

+a few more..

M-PESA has spread quickly andhas become the most successfulmobile phone-based financialservice in the developing world.

Source: The Economics of M-PesaImage courtesy of the AustralianWar Memorial collection

Afghanistan

Tanzania

South Africa

M-Pesa has nowexpanded into:

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Tanzania

Afghanistan

South Africa

Not bad for a little SMS textmessaging service

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Presentation for#Film315 at

Queen’sUniversity,

Kingston, Ontario,Canada