How do you foresee the future of mobile payment in India?
Very optimistic indeed. Currently, there are between 2.5 to 5 mn mobile
banking customers in the country. This is expected to rise to anywhere between
10 to 50 mn in the next five years. Though I have seen numbers being quoted
higher than that also. There are close to 500 mn mobiles in India, which is ten
times of Internet. So, sizing the market at 50 mn in a few years is fairly
conservative in my view.
What kind of regulatory push is needed to boost mobile payment market in
India?
Convergence of regulation of Trai and the RBI will provide the required
fillip to m-commerce. The former for enabling mobile related financial and non
financial transactions, at lowest common denominator of usage and cost, and for
the low socio-economic category. The latter for easing up on KYC, easier
registration, transaction value size, frequency of transaction, having a common
PIN for all channels which are electronic, etc. No doubt, there are pros and
cons for each regulation. And a fine balance has to be there.
What are the reasons for m-commerce being not so successful?
m-Commerce is in its formative stages. Customer adoption and awareness are
critical to arrive at an inflexion point. Customers don't change, when you want
them to. They do so, when they feel they need to. And the way to get them do
that, is by a three-step cycle. Firstly, board the i-banking customers-these are
typically early adopters. Secondly, some banks have embarked upon activation,
and subsequent usage by running special promotional offers. And thirdly, every
new customer is automatically registered for mobile banking, at the time of
opening an account. The end game is to focus on converting at least 10% of the
Internet banking base into a regular mobile payment transacting user base,
within twelve months.
No doubt, this is the slowest part of the journey, but something which has to
be done by the service provider. And also has to be done vigorously by all
stakeholders, predominantly people within the banking space.
What initiatives have you taken to ensure security in payment solutions
offered by PayMate?
PayMate's list of global security certifications include compliances such as PCI
DSS 1.2; PA-DSS 1.2; and Government of India's CERT-in, certifying its systems,
processes, and infrastructure with banking grade security.
There is no concern associated with security. It is a consumer perception,
which is applicable to any financial instrument or channel. It has to be
addressed as such, via customer education.
What is your plan for tapping the rural market?
The company has three mandates which are-to allow regular banking customers
to use mobile to do financial and non-financial transactions; micro-payments,
for people without bank accounts to use mobile for financial transactions of low
value, eg prepaid mobile wallet; and for unbanked people at the bottom of the
pyramid, to use mobile as their bank account, and carry out basic banking
services including mobile money transfer. So, my slogan for the country is 'No
Indian, left behind'. And mobile affords a great opportunity to be able to do
so.
Do you think launch of 3G services in India will give the required boost
to the m-commerce sector? How?
It should, as more spectrum becomes available for voice and data carriage,
and addresses latency and user interface-customers will be comfortable with the
convenience and ease of use.
Arpita Prem
arpitap@cybermedia.co.in
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