Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Massive growth in mobile banking usage in South Africa

A recent survey of mobile banking usage in South Africa shows significant growth in usage of this service. (Read here). This survey published about two weeks ago, shows that the number of subscribers now using mobile banking has almost doubled (up from 27% to 44% in one year). The growth in transaction services was also healthy with purchasing airtime and bill payments the biggest penetration. A substantial percentage (12%) are now sending money from one phone to another.

What is interesting about the South African mobile banking landscape is the number of players providing a viable services. Most of the banks (if not all) provide mobile banking services, the two largest mobile operators have launched mobile money services and many independent providers are also growing strongly (Wizzit, Pocit, MiMoney, to name a few). This shows that a market can develop well with healthy competition and a number of independent players. While this does not lead to one spectacular success, this is probably more sustainable and will lead to a healthy and sustainable growth.

2 comments:

Mobile Banking said...

It's fascinating how much mobile banking is expanding. Really, this all stems from the increase in mobile phone use as a whole. People are beginning to use their phones more and more for everyday tasks. It's only natural to want to do banking from phones. I am starting to use mobile banking more and more, and I look forward to seeing the technology expand in the future.

Rebuilding Credit said...

We saw the world change as more and more people got access to computers in their homes. Now we are seeing change as more and more people get to carry computers everywhere. Exciting times