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Barclays launches Hello Money

Barclays has launched Hello Money, allowing customers to access banking services anytime and anywhere on their mobile phones.

Barclays customers can now perform account enquiries and financial transactions by simply dialling *598*1#. They can carry out secure banking transactions like fund transfers, bill payments, requests and other banking services without visiting a branch or ATM. Upon dialling *598*1#, customers will be guided to the mobile-based menu where they will be able to choose from a number of options and, after they enter the correct Hello Money PIN, they can immediately perform their required transaction on their handsets.

Barclays Hello Money operates on USSD (unstructured supplementary service data). The service is available on all GSM handsets on the network of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea in 40 cities across the country for a nominal monthly cost of Rs 30. Customers can currently choose between Hindi and English, but Barclays aims to include more languages and extend it to CDMA handsets too.

Ahmed Khizer Khan, CEO, Emerging Markets, Barclays GRCB added: Mobile banking is proving to be a groundbreaking initiative which has already started to show great results. Easy access to banking has positive transformational effects as it opens up the financial system to formerly excluded segments of the population. This is the kind of change we aim to create in all emerging markets where financial inclusion is at the heart of our business strategy.

Mobile TV Services to be $360 mn by 2008
As per Springboard Research, the Indian mobile TV services is estimated to touch $360 mn in 2008. As per the report, Mobile TV in India: Understanding the Mobile Entertainment Needs of Indian Users, in the first year of operation, mobile TV could reach a penetration level of 5 to 6% of the total mobile subscriber base in India. It predicts 12 mn subscribers to use the mobile TV service in the first year of launch.

As per the report, 84% of mobile phone users are interested in using mobile TV service, provided that the service is commonly available and affordable. Close to 60% of these will prefer watching the same content that they get on TV at home. News, sports, music videos, and game shows were the four dominant types of content that the surveyed users will prefer watching on mobile TV. These findings are based on a survey conducted among 1,215 mobile users in six major Indian cities by Springboard Research.

According to Ravi Shekhar Pandey, manager, Syndicated Research at Springboard Research, A majority of mobile users in India are interested in trying out mobile TV and would invest in new handsets for using the service. This willingness is definitely a positive sign for those considering offering mobile TV in one of the worlds largest and fastest growing mobile services market.

Mobile telephone operators will have an advantage over standalone mobile TV operators in that the former already have users subscribing to their value-added services.

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