There is an old story about three blind men looking at an elephant. One runs his hands along the side and says, “an elephant is a large flat animal.” The second holds a leg and says, “no, it’s like a tree,” and the third, with the trunk, says, “you are both wrong, it’s like a snake.”

So it is with Mobile Money. When a bank, operator or NGO says Mobile Money is great because it leads to value-added services, they are looking at the same thing but thinking differently. 

“Added services”: A bank might mean loans, an operator top-ups and the NGO health care.

The Mobile Money business consists of groups working in parallel but which need to intersect. The banks, operators, NGOs, legislators, microfinance initiatives, consultants (a lot of them) and the software providers all  need to work together to build a working system. The consultants and software providers are good at looking at the whole picture, but the other parties tend to only see their part of the elephant.

It is the job of the Mobile Money Exchange (MMX) to help everyone see the whole elephant. Much like a magazine which has news, features and readers’ letters, MMX has a number of areas dedicated to different topics within Mobile Money. This reflects the GSMA’s key areas of focus over the past few years – Mobile Money for the Unbanked, Mobile Money Transfer, Mobile Payments and Mobile ticketing. There are also areas on security, banking, regulation and technology.

MMX is aimed at people working in Mobile Money, who want an in-depth understanding of the successes and failures in the industry.  Including case studies, technology explanations and contact lists, it also provides a rich source of in-depth research information.

There is probably no area of mobile which is more dynamic than Mobile Money.  We can expect it to do to banking what mobile phones have done to the digital camera and music player markets.

The huge number of trials, different consumer needs and regulatory environments conspire to produce hundreds of business models as people with different interests lead different projects. The Mobile Money for the Unbanked area lists 120 deployments alone. Keeping track of what is happening, what has happened and what is about to happen is the job of the news section. This is updated by the team at the GSMA, various news partners and through members posting their news.

Finally, there is the community – the part of the site where people in the Mobile Money industry share views and opinions. This is the social networking area of the site. At any Mobile Money meeting or summit there are at least twice as many opinions as there are people in the room, and not all of them are about regulation. Readers can post their news, events and research in relevant areas.  There is space for discussion with the ability to comment and build your arguments. It’s the place to ask the Mobile Money community for advice, facts and, of course, opinions. Log in and have a look.

Newcomers might find the world of Mobile Money confusing and a bit of a jungle, but with the help of the community on MMX you’ll be able to spot the elephant.

 

Simon Rockman, Special to MBB. Simon heads up the GSMA’s Mobile Money Exchange.

The editorial views expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and will not necessarily reflect the views of the GSMA, its Members or Associate Members