Mpesa to next level

[RV Pundit]

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http://www.nation.co.ke/business/Safaricom-takes-MPesa-card-five-more-towns/996-4123948-v58sxb/index.html

[Nefertiti]

M-pesa is going places - at chameleon pace   I hope they maintain proper leadership after Betty Mwangi & Ron Webb exit. Bob needs to try think big for a change - and probably spin-off M-pesa from Safaricom - like say Equitel or EcoCash. Equitel is gaining rapidly on M-pesa due to autonomy... with 25% of market now after just 3 years. EcoCash despite being sub of Econet is autonomous unit with a board and CEO and dotted line to Econet Group.

M-pesa is still just a money or postal order on mobile... despite expanding channels. The tech & model is still the same. Econet - which started as only telcom - on the other hand has divested big besides payments into into tech, media & internet - with pay TV, name it. Econet Media is actually autonomus unit too - now lead by former M-Net dude Joseph Hundah - media guru. Pay TV market escaped Safaricom - who were very well poised for it with capital, tech, licenses & manpower - due to Bob incompetence. All the M-Kopas, Ubers, Bitpesa, etc are all eating M-Pesa lunch.

I just think M-pesa has massive room to innovate & grow... as biggest p2p solution in Africa (EcoCash is 20% M-pesa turnover). I am glad Safarciom now has an autonomous innovation lab.

Econet of course is owned by Zim billionaire Strive Masiyiwa who is big industrialist.

[RV Pundit]

Interesting. Vodafone/Vodacom continues to shackle safaricom.

M-pesa is going places - at chameleon pace   I hope they maintain proper leadership after Betty Mwangi & Ron Webb exit. Bob needs to try think big for a change - and probably spin-off M-pesa from Safaricom - like say Equitel or EcoCash. Equitel is gaining rapidly on M-pesa due to autonomy... with 25% of market now after just 3 years. EcoCash despite being sub of Econet is autonomous unit with a board and CEO and dotted line to Econet Group.

M-pesa is still just a money or postal order on mobile... despite expanding channels. The tech & model is still the same. Econet - which started as only telcom - on the other hand has divested big besides payments into into tech, media & internet - with pay TV, name it. Econet Media is actually autonomus unit too - now lead by former M-Net dude Joseph Hundah - media guru. Pay TV market escaped Safaricom - who were very well poised for it with capital, tech, licenses & manpower - due to Bob incompetence. All the M-Kopas, Ubers, Bitpesa, etc are all eating M-Pesa lunch.

I just think M-pesa has massive room to innovate & grow... as biggest p2p solution in Africa (EcoCash is 20% M-pesa turnover). I am glad Safarciom now has an autonomous innovation lab.

Econet of course is owned by Zim billionaire Strive Masiyiwa who is big industrialist.

[Nefertiti]

Ohh Safcom really. Do you know they invested big into Safcom Cloud - can't recall the brand name - in 2007. At a point when cloud service was teething. Now they have meagre 1% marketshare - after IBM, Amazon, Google took off with everything. Even that Safcom Live portal - the one with ringtones & such - was meant to go full fledged like iStore. Who knows about it.

[Nefertiti]

A deadbeat excuse. Poor leadership I think is the issue. Bob is a PR guy - while we need a serious entrepreneur kind - to maintain startup speed.

Interesting. Vodafone/Vodacom continues to shackle safaricom.

M-pesa is going places - at chameleon pace   I hope they maintain proper leadership after Betty Mwangi & Ron Webb exit. Bob needs to try think big for a change - and probably spin-off M-pesa from Safaricom - like say Equitel or EcoCash. Equitel is gaining rapidly on M-pesa due to autonomy... with 25% of market now after just 3 years. EcoCash despite being sub of Econet is autonomous unit with a board and CEO and dotted line to Econet Group.

M-pesa is still just a money or postal order on mobile... despite expanding channels. The tech & model is still the same. Econet - which started as only telcom - on the other hand has divested big besides payments into into tech, media & internet - with pay TV, name it. Econet Media is actually autonomus unit too - now lead by former M-Net dude Joseph Hundah - media guru. Pay TV market escaped Safaricom - who were very well poised for it with capital, tech, licenses & manpower - due to Bob incompetence. All the M-Kopas, Ubers, Bitpesa, etc are all eating M-Pesa lunch.

I just think M-pesa has massive room to innovate & grow... as biggest p2p solution in Africa (EcoCash is 20% M-pesa turnover). I am glad Safarciom now has an autonomous innovation lab.

Econet of course is owned by Zim billionaire Strive Masiyiwa who is big industrialist.

[Nefertiti]

Retail is doing well. Ironically traditional retailers like Nakumatt should thrive as retail formalizes and kiosks die off. The more we have mobile & plastic the more folks will move mainstream. I think Nakumatt troubles are an indicator of inefficiency. How do you explain newcomers like Carrefour & online Jumia?

I can see VC-backed startup Jumia here .. doing well at 5 years. https://www.techcityng.com/rocket-internets-q1-2017-report-reveals-jumias-performance-status/

If Carrefour sells out to Amazon the local slow adapters will have to shape up or ship out. http://fortune.com/2017/10/03/amazon-grocery-stores-france/

[Omollo]

 Safaricom and Mpesa Committing Corporate Suicide

[RVtitem]

collymore and Ali khan satchu are cut from the same cloth.

[Nefertiti]

collymore and Ali khan satchu are cut from the same cloth.

Yup. Talk, talk.. tick. tock. ZERO new products since Bob showed up 7 years ago. Well, plenty of new agents, ringtones & tariffs

[Nefertiti]

 Safaricom and Mpesa Committing Corporate Suicide

I agree but for reasons apart from the author's. They do not need to spin-off because they are so big, they are actually very small and underdeveloped. Such awfully small visions that local companies have! They just need to divest their stash fast. Into new outfits. The way tech companies do - Facebook, Google, etc. They run serious R&D then spin-off.

Facebook has 2B users, WhatsApp, Instagram, Oculus, etc. Safcom has 25M users - with just 15M on M-Pesa - and is proudly the "biggest" in East & Central Africa. Bob tours the region giving speeches on greatness... his work is done