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Companies like Reliance Communications and Airtel are coming up
with innovative mobile payment solutions that allow mobile users to pay for
their purchases by a simple SMS. What's more, payments over mobile can be done
even on a basic mobile, thus eliminating the need for high-end mobile phones.
The latest in line is a mobile payment solution by Paymate,
which provides Citibank consumers the option to make payments through SMS.
Earlier last year, Airtel had joined hands with ICICI Bank and VISA for offering
mobile-to-mobile payment option, allowing Airtel customers and ICICI Bank Visa
cardholders to pay using Airtel mobile phones.
Reliance Communications and Reliance Energy have also tied up to
allow their consumers in Mumbai to pay their electricity bill via Reliance
Mobile World using ITZ cash card. However, PayMate is not limited to a
particular mobile phone operator or technology and works with both CDMA and GSM.
Moreover, it does not require GPRS connectivity or SIM upgrades meaning that a
basic phone is all that is required. "The customer authenticates every
transaction by providing the pin number, which is given at the time of
registration and all charges are debited real-time to the account. Customers can
choose to link their mobile number to their existing credit card or debit card
as preferred," says Ajay Adiseshann, founder and MD Paymate India.
Wait and Watch
Even though companies are now offering mobile payment solutions, mobile
payment is yet to become mainstream. Most companies are wary and still grappling
with doubts of whether something like mobile payments would work in a market
like India. Being cautious they are still using the 'wait and watch approach'.
The situation is only likely to improve with the entry of other innovation
centric organizations in offering such services and the rest will follow suit.
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Last year, Airtel had joined hands
with ICICI Bank and VISA for offering mobile-to-mobile payment option,
which enabled Airtel customers and ICICI Bank Visa cardholders to pay for
their purchases using Airtel mobile phones. The retailer sends an SMS
mentioning the amount to the customer who then enters the personalized PIN
number and sends an SMS back to the retailer acknowledging the amount to
be paid. Both parties then get an SMS indicating the completion of the
transaction. Airtel customers were issued a new SIM card free of cost and
ICICI Bank cardholders were issued an add-on card.
In another instance of mobile
payments becoming popular, ADA Group owned Reliance Communications and
Reliance Energy, tied up to allow their consumers in Mumbai to pay their
electricity bill but only via Reliance Mobile World by using ITZ cash
card. |
Mobile payment, though, is likely to find favor with enterprises
and users alike, considering the benefits it holds for both. Benefits to
enterprises vary from reaching out to a remote customer base via the mobile to
shortened payment cycles. A mobile payment gateway offers enterprises and
merchants value addition, which ultimately translates to the end user. It offers
enterprises with several transaction interfaces such as the Internet, mobile
phone and landline phone (which currently has a very low sales conversion rate)
so as to enable them to offer the customers more payment options. For the
consumers, it's all about the convenience of paying from anywhere, anytime at
the press of a button as well as the added security of not divulging the card
details.
Keeping in mind the immense benefits accruing from mobile
payment, it is expected to change the future of transactions. It has all the
requisite ingredients for making it a preferred payment platform for both
merchants and consumers.
But the transition will not happen overnight or in a few days.
Consumer adoption, although gradual, is still expected to be faster than other
technology adoption, given the fast growing mobile phone penetration in the
country.
Stuti Das
stutid@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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