Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 24 views

    Mobile Channel

    Uploaded by

    chintan9970
    The author argues that mobile services have the potential to transform how common people in India access services like banking, healthcare, commerce and government. Services provided through companies like ngpay are already being used by people in rural and tier 2/3 cities to pay bills, purchase goods, access medical information and more. The author believes awareness, entrepreneurship and investment can help mobile services grow rapidly and improve lives by increasing access and reducing costs compared to traditional in-person methods.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Mobile Channel

    Uploaded by

    chintan9970
    24 views2 pages
    The author argues that mobile services have the potential to transform how common people in India access services like banking, healthcare, commerce and government. Services provided through companies like ngpay are already being used by people in rural and tier 2/3 cities to pay bills, purchase goods, access medical information and more. The author believes awareness, entrepreneurship and investment can help mobile services grow rapidly and improve lives by increasing access and reducing costs compared to traditional in-person methods.

    Copyright

    © Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The author argues that mobile services have the potential to transform how common people in India access services like banking, healthcare, commerce and government. Services provided through companies like ngpay are already being used by people in rural and tier 2/3 cities to pay bills, purchase goods, access medical information and more. The author believes awareness, entrepreneurship and investment can help mobile services grow rapidly and improve lives by increasing access and reducing costs compared to traditional in-person methods.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    24 views2 pages

    Mobile Channel

    Uploaded by

    chintan9970
    The author argues that mobile services have the potential to transform how common people in India access services like banking, healthcare, commerce and government. Services provided through companies like ngpay are already being used by people in rural and tier 2/3 cities to pay bills, purchase goods, access medical information and more. The author believes awareness, entrepreneurship and investment can help mobile services grow rapidly and improve lives by increasing access and reducing costs compared to traditional in-person methods.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    May-August

    2009
    COMMON MAN

    Sourabh Jain

    How the Mobile Channel will help the Common Man

    O
    d CONTENT

    ver the last 20 years, the widespread availability of PCs and then the Internet transformed how people transacted in Europe, the US, and other "mature" markets. In India, however, this revolution has not yet impacted a significant portion of the population. Fortunately, the mobile channel now has the ability to bring the benefits of electronic services to the Indian mass market. The average Indian does not own a PC, but over 350 million people have mobile handsets. Moreover, according to TRAI, there are already over 70 million people accessing the Internet over wireless networks. This compares to only 50 million people accessing the Internet over 20 million PC broadband connections (TRAI, IAMAI). Given the large and rapidly growing reach of mobile service, we have a unique opportunity to bypass geographic and infrastructure constraints to bring massive benefits and lifestyle changes to millions of underserved people across India. This is a bold statement, especially to many people who view "Next Generation" mobile services such as mBanking, mHealth, mGovernment & mCommerce as

    niche services that are only used by techies & high-end users in major metros. The reality is that adoption of non-voice, nonSMS services is growing exponentially and in all regions of India. Having spent the last 5 years building a company focused on end-to-end mCommerce, I believe that people will adopt any service that provides high utility at a reasonable price. However, even I have been amazed at the wide range of people who are actively using ngpay as well as the types of products and services that they have purchased. We spent over 4 years building and testing our mCommerce service before launching it in February 2008. In just over one year, ngpay has registered and active users in every state in India. Over 60% of ngpay users live outside the 4 major metros. Moreover, we have seen people in Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities not only banking and paying bills but also booking train tickets, buying saris & DVD players, sending gifts & chocolates to friends in other cities, giving donations to charity, and more all from their mobile phones.

    32

    May-August
    COMMON MAN

    2009

    Imagine a rickshaw driver paying his electricity bill in one minute from the roadside instead of skipping fares to pay his bills in person; imagine someone in a rural village being able to access health information to treat his sick child instead of travelling several kilometers to the hospital; imagine a small business or NGO selling hand-crafted products being able to instantly reach millions of potential customers anywhere in India with no effort or cost; imagine working class people who want to buy consumer goods but without access to any desired stores in their town; imagine a bank being able to immediately provide services to any customer without being forced to build a branch in every remote region of India. All of these - and many more - are available over the mobile if people want them today.

    The quick adoption of electronic services will >> help businesses sell more effectively and service their customers better, >> provide value and convenience to consumers that were not available through existing channels and processes,

    Services from ngpay

    Imagine a rickshaw driver paying his electricity bill in one minute from the roadside instead of skipping fares to pay his bills in person; imagine someone in a rural village being able to access health information to treat his sick child instead of traveling several kilometers to the hospital

    >> accelerate the access and distribution of critical health, government, financial information to citizens, and >> improve the efficiency, productivity, and growth of both commercial and social services. In other words, everyone benefits from an effective and aggressive strategy for bringing electronic services to the masses in an easy-to-use, cost-effective, secure, and reliable manner. To this end, the following can be done to accelerate the growth and adoption of mobile services: (a) increase awareness of the benefits of mobile services via central campaigns and initiatives,

    Services from ngpay and other entrepreneurial companies will bring low-cost electronic commerce, medical, government, and financial services to the rural and working class in a scalable, secure, cheap, and reliable manner. The mCommerce services in the market today work on any telecom network and on entry-level handsets. Data networks now cover most of India and every operator offers low-cost pay-per-use GPRS plans that can be turned on with a simple phone call. (A typical, endto-end banking, bill payment, or shopping transaction would cost less than 40 paisa in GPRS charges. This is extremely cheap when compared to the lost wages & petrol needed to complete similar transactions in person.) On the supply-side, any company, NGO, or government agency that wants to provide electronic services to mobile users anywhere in India can do so in a few days with negligible costs. The only barrier is, and continues to be, awareness of what is possible and the type of ROI that mobile services provide. To be fair, we are still in early days and the while the trends are encouraging, electronic services - over both the PC and mobile - are not close to being as mainstream and mass-market as they are in the US or Europe. However, I fundamentally believe that the inherent benefits of electronic services (increased choice, convenience, access to new services & companies, lower cost) are as useful to an Indian consumer as his/her peer in the US. Hence, it is not a question of whether mCommerce will be adopted, but how fast can it grow? This is where the government and private partnerships can help.

    (b) ensure that an environment that is friendly to entrepreneurship and innovation is place, and (c) invest - either directly or indirectly - in projects and companies that will further expand the reach and reduce the cost of data services for users using even the most basic mobile service. The mobile has already changed forever how people interact in their daily lives. However, I believe another revolution is about to happen. Soon, the mobile - given its inevitable penetration, increasing capabilities, low cost, and accessibility will also change how the "Common Man" transacts his/her daily life.

    Sourabh Jain is Founder and CEO of "ngpay". ngpay is one of India's leading mCommerce services. ngpay is a virtual "Mall on the Mobile" through which consumers anywhere across India can shop, buy tickets, bank, order food, pay bills and more - easily and securely - from their mobile handset. ngpay has been recognized as one of the "Most Innovative Technologies in India" by Microsoft, "100 Most Promising Companies in Asia" by Red Herring, "Best e-Business Services in South Asia" by the Manthan Awards, and "Global Technology Pioneers for 2009" by the World Economic Forum. He can be reached at [email protected]

    d CONTENT 33

    You might also like