Nokia: Banking on financial services
Last November, on the day Barack Obama won the US Presidential elections, Nokia quietly lay their cards on the table and entered the ‘international development’ arena. The launch of Nokia Life Tools – initially a suite of education and agriculture-based tools aimed at the Indian market – was a significant step forward for the handset maker, which had for some time been positioning itself not just as a manufacturer, but also as something of a services provider. Early signs of any shift would have come as little surprise to those who know the history of the company. Nokia are masters of re-invention.
So, something else which shouldn’t have come as a big surprise was today’s news of Nokia’s big move into mobile financial services. There’s clearly a big market opportunity here, and Nokia have partnered with Obopay to take it on (a company they had already invested around $70 million in earlier this year). According to Nokia:
Nokia Money has been designed to be as simple and convenient as making a voice call or sending an SMS. It will enable consumers to send money to another person just by using the person’s mobile phone number, as well as to pay merchants for goods and services, pay their utility bills, or recharge their prepaid SIM cards (SIM top-up). The services can be accessed 24 hours a day from anywhere, meaning savings in travel costs and time. Nokia is building a wide network of Nokia Money agents, where consumers can deposit money in or withdraw cash from their accounts
Although on the surface the new service may sound a little M-Pesa-esque, there appear to be some crucial differences. Details remain a little sketchy, but Nokia Money appears to be operator-independent, meaning mobile owners on any network can send or receive payments to anyone else on any other network. This would be a direct challenge to many existing models which require users to switch networks, or to be on the same network as the mobile service they’re looking to use. In addition, it looks like Nokia Money users can sign-up without needing to swap out their SIM cards, making up-take of the service considerably more efficient logistically. If this thing were to grow, it could grow fast.
We may not know all the details quite yet – Nokia will reveal more at Nokia World next week – but it is safe to say that this could be pretty disruptive. Last year, during the Life Tools launch, I wrote:
It’s the addition of Nokia Life Tools – agricultural and educational services – which raises eyebrows almost as much as it raises the bar. How will Nokia’s move into providing agricultural data and advice to farmers effect, for example, the operations of Trade At Hand, DrumNet, Manobi or TradeNet? Will they be partners in any Africa-wide venture? (Nokia do seem to be developing a habit of going-it-alone – more recently with their release of Nokia Data Gathering – rather than working with established, existing open source tools)
Already the most active handset manufacturer in the developing world, today’s announcement well-and-truly places Nokia at the heart of the international development effort. As if (very) successfully designing and building low-cost handsets for emerging markets wasn’t enough, Nokia continue to increase their offering of emerging market-specific services through their low-cost phones. Last year it was agriculture and education. Today it’s financial services.
I’ve never been one for predictions, but this one has certainly come true. Again, writing last November:
So, what next? Nokia develop a mobile payments platform and embed the client into all of their emerging market handsets? Imagine, a single company controlling the entire mobile technology value chain would make interesting viewing. It could well be the answer to the age old fragmentation problems suffered by the “social mobile” and ICT4D space, but would this give the Finnish giant Google-esque powers?
So, should we be getting worried yet? At best, billions of the financially excluded finally get given a chance to enter the financial services market. At worst, M-Pesa’s monopoly in Kenya ends up looking like a minor distraction. Nokia really have taken this to a whole new level. Regulators, on your marks…
32 comments
[...] Read more: Nokia: Banking on financial services | Build it Kenny, and they … [...]
[...] Read more: Nokia: Banking on financial services | Build it Kenny, and they … [...]
Good insight, and always good when a prediction comes off!! I certainly think it’s very interesting what’s happening here, yet unlike with Google people do seem a lot less concerned. Like you, I’m thinking we should be
[...] Read a strange here: Nokia: Banking upon monetary services | Build it Kenny, as well as they … [...]
RT @kiwanja – Nokia launching “Nokia Money” – virtual currency that can be sent from any cell phone to any other. http://tinyurl.com/nbd7c9
@Jack – I wouldn’t say that I was worried, but I do think it’s “interesting” the way this is going. Nokia are in a unique position in that each time they launch a new emerging-market service they have an instant market of billions. While some ICT4D projects can take months or years to get traction, something like Nokia Money could get there in weeks
[...] Banks of kiwanja.net notes that this challenges the exclusivity many African m-banking operators enjoy, but may lock customers into a handset rather than a [...]
RT @kiwanja: Nokia: connecting people or building monopolies? "Nokia Money" set to take on the mobile payments industry. http://is.gd/2BdEZ
[...] This post was Twitted by ttim [...]
Nice post on Nokia’s move into mobile financial services – http://bit.ly/39xirI
Nice post on Nokia’s move into mobile financial services – http://bit.ly/39xirI
RT @redstarvip: Nice post on Nokia’s move into mobile financial services – http://bit.ly/39xirI
RT @redstarvip: Nice post on Nokia’s move into mobile financial services – http://bit.ly/39xirI
@kiwanja nice summary of Nokia’s ongoing shift from manufacture to development and financial services with Nokia Money http://bit.ly/svPOJ
@kiwanja nice summary of Nokia’s ongoing shift from manufacture to development and financial services with Nokia Money http://bit.ly/svPOJ
[...] Kiwanja/Ken Banks: “Details remain a little sketchy, but Nokia Money appears to be operator-independent, meaning mobile owners on any network can send or receive payments to anyone else on any other network. This would be a direct challenge to many existing models which require users to switch networks, or to be on the same network as the mobile service they’re looking to use. In addition, it looks like Nokia Money users can sign-up without needing to swap out their SIM cards, making up-take of the service considerably more efficient logistically. If this thing were to grow, it could grow fast.” [...]
Nokia’s move into financial services disrupts the banking industry (via @redstarvip )http://bit.ly/39xirI
Nokia’s move into financial services disrupts the banking industry (via @redstarvip )http://bit.ly/39xirI
Nokia's move into financial services disrupts the banking industry (via @redstarvip ) http://bit.ly/39xirI
Nokia’s move into financial services disrupts the banking industry (via @redstarvip ) http://bit.ly/39xirI
Nokia's move into financial services disrupts the banking industry (via @redstarvip ) http://bit.ly/39xirI
RT @redstarvip: Nice post on Nokia’s move into mobile financial services – http://bit.ly/39xirI
RT @redstarvip: Nice post on Nokia’s move into mobile financial services – http://bit.ly/39xirI
RT @whiteafrican:Nice post on Nokia’s move into mobile financial services: http://bit.ly/39xirI (by @kiwanja)
RT @whiteafrican:Nice post on Nokia’s move into mobile financial services: http://bit.ly/39xirI (by @kiwanja)
[...] Nokia: Banking on financial services | Build it Kenny, and they will come… (tags: nokia nokia_strategy bop_money) [...]
[...] link is being shared on Twitter right now. @kiwanja, an influential author, said Handset manufacturer, [...]
[...] throughout BOP markets positions itself well to quickly become a leader in the mobile money market. Here’s a post on the topic written by mobile entrepreneur Ken [...]
dlcsubs Nokia: Banking on financial services | Build it Kenny, and they will come…: Nokia quietly lay t.. http://bit.ly/X9LQW
dlcsubs Nokia: Banking on financial services | Build it Kenny, and they will come…: Nokia quietly lay t.. http://bit.ly/X9LQW
Check out this link re: Nokia’s p2p $ sending tech. #mifimon. http://bit.ly/svPOJ would it work in Ghana? @ibl @rarenaud
Check out this link re: Nokia’s p2p $ sending tech. #mifimon. http://bit.ly/svPOJ would it work in Ghana? @ibl @rarenaud
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