Say no to cash…

that seems to be the mantra in the new p2p mobile payment systems… I I think the simple concept of mobile as a wallet is really going to impact the way cash is transacted….

A few weeks back Economist had a cover story
comparing cash with extincted dinosaurs:-) An interesting observation from the story is

You can already pass the day in Austria without carrying cash, credit or debit cards by paying for everything, including consumer goods, with a mobile phone

I think this technology will play a major role in the remittances (both domestic and international)… M-PESA is a good model to look for in the coming days… Maxis E-Money is another good model to look at.. (thanks Farhad for pointing out)

In Indian context, p2p mobile technology is already picking up well… this post has a good summary of the model for India…and IAMAI fortnightly thinkingaloud recently had a few good articles on digital payments.

Atleast from my experience, this can play a major role in reducing cash handling costs in microfinance operations.. and also in domestic remittances…

There are a whole bunch of startups waiting to cash on this opportunity in India… Obopay , mchek, jigrahak, paymate, atom technologies are all fighting for the pie..

but I am not sure how much a mobile can replace a debit or credit card in merchant transactions because cost of acquring the later is almost zero (thanks to life time free cards..).. right now many of them are positioning as “creditcard with extra pin security”.. I tried using Jigrahak a few days back..and.. it was really tough to use…

Some of these applications require GPRS and java enabled phones..and others require  lot of SMS interaction..In a market where most of the customers still own a low end phone and not comfortable with SMSing , I am not sure how these companies can educate customers and acquire a critical mass to be profitable…

I’ll definitely follow this space with more interest…. and looking forward to participate/lead discussion on mobile payments during barcampbangalore

I am on the cover of Time Magazine!

so as everyone who is involved in the new web2.0 revolution. This is worth considering because other than in 1982, when computer was the person of the year, this is the second time a trend is the person of the year. Lets see how the new technology is headed in the future!