Beyond Products: Building Integrated Customer Experiences on Mobile Phones

With today’s mobile money platforms, the value proposition for keeping money digital and driving up usage of digital payments is still thin. Mobile money is built on speed (real-time clearing) and liquidity (thousands of merchants where you can cash in and out). It’s ready-cash (an immediately accessible mobile wallet), cash-to-go (P2P money transfers, billpay). But mobile money is a flexible tool that can be expanded from PayNow to PayPlan – helping people ear-mark funds for and build up to the things they want to secure for tomorrow. PayPlan allows people to set and contribute to spending goals. They can send money over time to others (delayed P2P transfers), or simply to themselves (Me2Me). With Me2Me, farmers can use this year’s crop bounty to reserve money for inputs for the next season, and pay themselves a salary until the next crop comes in. Day laborers can build up to the amount they need for school fees, or to build a cushion for other things that will improve the quality of their lives. Traders can plan new supply purchases and loan repayments. Read more in this paper by Ignacio Mas.