We’ve written and shared much on mobile banking, including case studies on M-PESA, research on branchless banking, and issues of security in mobile banking. Success in mobile banking servicces have varied with some highly successful, and others less so. We also observed that services are highly dependent on many factors, including: reach, reliability, user retention, ease of use, approach with agents or operators, number of customers, geography, mobile infrastructure and landscape, technology used, language, cost, and regulatory issues.
In this newest MobileActive.org case study, we hear from Bill Barhydt, CEO of m-Via, the company behind new mobile banking service Boom. Boom allows people in the U.S., Mexico, Haiti, and Guatemala to create bank accounts, and send and access money via a basic mobile phone. It is targeting especially the diaspora and remittance payment from the US to other countries in the Americas. According to the World Bank a staggering $61 billion was sent from the US to Latin America in 2011 in remittances, with intra-regional remittances within Latin America growing as well.
While Barhydt was unable to disclose numbers (of Boom users, transactions, and total amount of transactions) since the service launched in November 2011, we do learn more about how Boom works when it comes to sending and receiving remittances across the Americas.
Cheaper and Easier Remittances in the Americas? Boom Mobile Banking data sheet 3642 Views
When it comes to mobile money, the hype is on these days. There are more and more mobile money services in an increasing number of countries. Success is highly dependent on many factors, including: reach, reliability, user retention, ease of use, the availability of agents, number of customers, geography, mobile infrastructure and landscape, technology used, language, cost, and banking and telco regulations. Here, we hear from Bill Barhydt, CEO of m-Via, the company behind the new mobile banking service Boom. Boom allows people in the U.S., Mexico, Haiti, and Guatemala to create bank accounts, and send and access money via a basic mobile phone.
While Barhydt did not disclose numbers of Boom users, transactions, and total amount of transactions since the service formally launched in November 2011, we do learn more about how Boom works across the Americas.
What is Boom?
Boom taps into a market of remittances sent from the U.S. to Mexico, Haiti, and Guatemala. Traditionally, remittances - payments from diaspora back to the home country - are often made via wire transfer, check cashing, or payday loan services, all of which incur additional fees for the sender. Boom enables people in the U.S. to send any increment of money via a mobile phone. “To my knowledge, it’s the first cross-border mobile banking service in the U.S,” Barhydt says. “We’re replacing this cash-based world with a bank-based world, and the right way to do this is via mobile phones.”
Barhydt says that Boom addresses a number of problems associated with remittances currently: It lowers the cost of sending money between immigrants and their families, and it improves their safety by reducing the risks of handling cash. It also creates new commerce capabilities, as users can receive payment for signing up others for the service.
Ethnography of the Telephone: Changing Uses of Communication Technology in Village Life data sheet 2517 Views
Author:
Wang, Tricia and Barry Brown
ISSN/ISBN Number:
978
Publication Date:
Sep 2011
Publication Type:
Report/White paper
Abstract:
While mobile HCI has encompassed a range of devices and systems, telephone calls on cellphones remain the most prevalent contemporary form of mobile technology use. In this paper we document ethnographic work studying a remote Mexican village’s use of cellphones alongside conventional phones, shared phones and the Internet. While few homes in the village we studied have running water, many children have iPods and the Internet cafe in the closest town is heavily used to access YouTube, Wikipedia, and MSN messenger. Alongside cost, the Internet fits into the communication patterns and daily routines in a way that cell phones do not. We document the variety of communication strategies that balance cost, availability and complexity. Instead of finding that new technologies replace old, we find that different technologies co-exist, with fixed telephones co-existing with instant message, cellphones and shared community phones. The paper concludes by discussing how we can study mobile technology and design for settings defined by cost and infrastructure availability.
Strategic Use of Mobile Telephony at the Bottom of the Pyramid: The Case of Mexico data sheet 3579 Views
Author:
Regina de Angoitia, Fernando Ramirez
Publication Date:
Jan 2009
Publication Type:
Report/White paper
Abstract:
The growing importance of mobile telephony for users at the bottom of the pyramid is reflected in the high proportion of their incomes devoted to this service. Evidence from communities in the developing world, where low-income users have developed strategies to minimize costs while continuing to benefit from access to communication, has opened new lines of research. Based on a survey of 1,000 mobile telephony users carried out in 2007, the present study assesses the strategies practiced by mobile users in two metropolitan areas of Mexico.
The results show that the main short-term strategies to minimize the costs of mobile telephony are 1) using the phone only to receive calls, and 2) the use of SMS. In both cases, the main determinant of whether users at the bottom of the pyramid use cost-reduction strategies is their low economic status.
On July 5th, Mexicans will go to the polls to elect new members of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress. Two Mexican initiatives, Cuidemos El Voto and Anulo Mi Voto, are using SMS in different ways to make people's voices heard in what they fear will be a less-than-democratic election.
Cuidamos El Voto
By simply sending a text message, citizens will be able to report any voting irregularities or other problems. But Oscar Salazar hopes that Cuidemos El Voto, the vote monitoring system, doesn't receive too many texts.
"We really hope that the number of incidents is low, this will mean Mexican democracy is for real," wrote Salazar in an email interview with MobileActive, who is coordinating the project. "However, if this is not the case, we want to provide NGOs and common citizens with the tools to enforce this process."
Yael Schwartzmann is a social entrepreneur, a programmer, and a mobile innovator. She developed a mobile data collection application-- DigitalICS -- to monitor smallholder coffee farmers' compliance with organic, fair trade certifications and quality requirements at a rural coffee cooperative in Oaxaca, Mexico. Yael will feature DigitalICS (pronounced Digitalix) at MobileActive08's SIMPlace. In my interview with her, we discuss why mobile phones are so useful for agricultural data collection on compliance and certification, how the application works, where else it could be used, and why she is passionate about her work.
Here is the audio of my interview with Yael; an edited transcript follows.
Technology-based interventions for prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS took a small but important place on the agenda at the recent 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, reports attendee Kate Jongbloed who runs an insightful blog on development issues. She reports for MobileActive from Mexico.
In a session entitled, “Reaching Millions: Youth, AIDS and the Digital Age,” a number of private and non-profit organizations presented their internet and mobile phone based approaches to the fight against AIDS. A full audio and video version of the panel can be found here.
