The 'UnderBanked' Are Connected

By Hisham Isa, Vice President (Marketing)

At a time when mobile phones are becoming more and more intricately linked with our lives, across all sectors of society, the mobile industry is driving Financial Inclusion, providing consumers who have been left out of the financial system with new ways to pay bills, buy goods and services, make remittances and even store their savings.

At the same time, these people without bank accounts – the 'UnderBanked' – have become the driving force behind a growing market for mobile payments.

These are two of the key findings of a recent BuzzCity survey of 17,000 consumers across 22 countries.

The BuzzCity Report Volume 3 Issue 4

The latest edition of The BuzzCity Report is now available.

Over the last quarter, our network delivered more than 69 billion paid ads as user activity and advertiser

campaigns continue to grow.

Among the Top Markets in the third quarter are :-

• India 18.4  billion ad impressions
• Indonesia 9.4 bil
• South Africa 3.4 bil
• Saudi Arabia 2.8 bil
• Nigeria 2.8 bil
• United Kingdom 2.7 bil
• United States 2.2 bil

We also report on the latest user attitudes towards mobile banking and payments. 

Our study shows, over a quarter of working adults are using their phones for some form of financial or banking transaction, with nearly a fifth intending to try mobile banking. But it is those without bank accounts, ironically, that are fuelling the growth of mobile payments – a higher percentage than those with bank accounts.

In this issue we also look at some examples of how financial services, as a consumer centric product, have deployed mobile properties that demonstrate a sound approach to developing a mobile strategy.

For more details, please download the report or the summarised infographic

A Tale of Two Banks - Revisited

By Anne Catherine Nunes, Account Director

Back in 2009, we published an article on GammaLife called "A Tale of Two Banks" about two French financial institutions - Credit Agricole and Mutuelles de Mans Assurances (MMA) - that were both using mobile to engage consumers, particularly youth, but in very different ways.

Credit Agricole was taking a straight-forward sales approach, providing information about financial products and a connection to sales agents. MMA, on the other hand, created a branded portal with no direct sales component; MMA's site, Mon Mobile Adore, offered users the ability to set up their own mobile home page and download simple mobile content like ringtones.

Now, four years later, how are the two banks doing? Have these early-adopters of mobile stuck to the same approach or changed course?

Is the PC really dead?

By Hisham Isa, Vice President (Marketing)

If you read IDC, Gartner and a variety of mainstream news articles, you might think that PCs have one foot in the grave, thanks to the emergence of smarter phones and tablets.

But to paraphrase Mark Twain, 'reports of my death are greatly exaggerated'.

Yes, PC sales are declining. 

Yes, low-end netbooks are history.

But laptops and desktop computers are here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future.

Here's why . . .