Who Said It Could Not Be Done?
It is done PERIOD
The long march is over, http://www.etopup.co.ke/
has done it.
I know you are lost, and so was I for over a year, so
welcome back and thanks for the reads.
So what is it am yapping about? Here is the deal, look at these
market share statistics of a Company in the Kenyan mobile market:
- Subscriber Base: 64.5% (19 Million out of 29.8 M), next chap in line at 16.5%.
- Voice Traffic: 77.5%, next chap at 12.5%.
- SMS Traffic: 93.7%, next chap 4.5%.
- Mobile data: 74.4%, next chap 11.2%.
- Mobile Money Subscribers: 96% next chap 3% (total subscription, 19.5 M)
- Mobile Money Agents Outlets: 93%, next chap 3% (total agents outlets, 74 K)
Item 1-4, source: http://www.cck.go.ke/resc/downloads/Sector_Statistics_Report_for_3rd_Quarter_2012-2013.pdf
Item 5-6, source: personal market assessment of the
percentages, CCK-Kenyans communications regulator does not give these, yet.
Who wants to throw the first stone?
Now, and I mean now, all of us to the last person would love
to be the owner of such statistics, wouldn't we?
And who do they belong to, off course Safaricom Limited, the
premier Kenyan mobile network operator.
So, what is the net effect of such a grip on such a vital
facilitator of any countries trade?
One, the owner, me or you, inclusive and without any
exceptions, becomes a bully.
Two, your grip, as tight as it is, makes you a killer of
innovation, and it’s obvious, why let other drink from the well, when the well
is practically yours.
Three, and this is one of the biggest un-lamented problem, independent
VAS operators perish, after all you own all the subscribers and means of
reaching them and so can afford to enforce usurious revenue share regimes.
Four, when we reach up there, we all to a person, mistreat,
banish, or put down the people who helped us get up, it’s a rule of life, it must
be somewhere in the little book-The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli.
Case in point, to a good extend, Safaricom was build into
the giant it is today by the hard sweat of its airtime dealer. This was in
the 1999-2008 period.
Then my pet project, Mpesa happened, and it cut off the legs
of the dealers as far as airtime dealership goes.
Currently Mpesa Buy airtime menu in 100% of Safaricom users
phones enables Safaricom to deliver 72% of its daily airtime top up sales,
keeping the dealers margin of 8% (did I mention greed somewhere up there, ok, I
do know, when you have that grip, yes, that is what you become, greedy!).
The 8% picked off the distributor’s pockets does not in any
way end up in the customers’ pockets, no way, and this is despite not incurring
printing cost, storage, pilferage, security, etcetera, say another 8% more
savings in airtime distribution cost.
Safaricom swallows this 16% -whap! (You know the sucking sound made with your lips shaped roundish, that
sound, is the sound), the dealers perish one by one and the customers
suffer the highest calling rates in the country.
Vertical integration is good, healthy and desirable, but how
is the customer benefiting?
And the dealers?
They cannot be tolerated to think, say or suggest “Safaricom
can I have the same facilities your Mpesa department uses-customers don’t pay a
transaction fee to buy airtime through Mpesa Department buy airtime function
and also Mpesa department gets its share of the sale without paying for the
airtime before hand as we do, we have to buy it cash, in hard Kenyan currency
so that we can sell it on your behalf”. That thought is tantamount to mutiny
and treated worse than leprosy.
Reconstruction of the market place begins.
But now, the first shot has been fired.
EtopUp, enable the use of the ubiquitous Safaricom e-money
offering, Mpesa, to order and pay for airtime top up for any mobile network subscriber in Kenya.
Yes, other payments methods are also available, visa and
PayPal, etcetera, so that our brothers in the diasporas can also top up their
loved ones phones back in Kenya.
So what is so wonderful about this?
The other networks because of economies of scale had very
tiny airtime distribution networks, further more small shop owners don’t even
want to stock their airtime. But with the eTopUp the game has just changed.
Try it, go to http://www.etopup.co.ke/
, enter a mobile number, say Safaricom 0722446858, put an amount, say 1000,
accept terms and conditions, confirm, and you will find yourself in a new
world, the payment options are stupendous! And the latency between payment and
order fulfillment is 26 seconds; I timed it, now that’s faster than even the Red
Queen in Lewis Carroll’s The Garden of Live Flowers could move, and she was
fast!
Kenyans could not take advantage of the much much cheaper
calling rates offered by the other three Kenyan mobile network operators, but
now they can, all they need is a phone with dual sim cards capability and by
the look of things all Chinese phones in the Kenyan market seem to be dual
phones.
And so what can we expect to see?
- Safaricom losing grip on voice, SMS, MMS, and mobile data to the other mobile operators.
- Safaricom taking over the mobile money payment space (at least for a little while longer).
- And for Safaricom to archive number two above, realizing that Mpesa e-money is a commodity, sold among other commodities, and thus should be sold by All who wish to sell it and so should cut out the red tape of “managers approving Mpesa agency locations” in the guise of protecting the other existing Mpesa players in the location - that stage is long past!
- Be sure in the next two years, 90% of Kenyans will be within 400 meters of an Mpesa e-money selling shop.
- Visit http://www.obuntu.co.ke/, if you need an electronic voucher distribution platform on business friendly terms to enable you penetrate and take any prepaid voucher business environment.
By the way how long do
you think it will take to have a similar e-top up solution in the Kenyan market?
When you look at http://www.etopup.co.ke/ what other
business do you see around it.
Drop me your views on the two questions.
Thanks and copy with
pride.
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