Published by: http://www.gatesfoundation.org
Retail payment systems require scale to get off the ground and struggle to grow incrementally, as they need to build trust, reap network effects and overcome chicken-and-egg problems of acquiring both customers and merchants. To overcome these barriers, they must
(i) create enough urgency in customers minds to learn about, try, and use the service;
(ii) invest heavily in above- and below-the-line marketing to establish top-of-mind awareness of (and trust in) the service among a large segment of the population;
and
(iii) incur considerable customer acquisition costs (beyond marketing and promotion) to ensure that their cash-in/out merchants are adequately incentivized to promote the service.
Many deployments around the world have potential to scale, but are stuck in the sub-scale trap due to under-resourcing.
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