Our latest Gx Seminar – the UK Prepaid Club – has been covered by industry news blog PaymentEye.

Read the article online here. 

]]> http://www.yourgx.com/blogs/2013/05/gx-seminar-highlights-industrys-burning-issues-paymenteye/feed/ 0 http://www.yourgx.com/press-releases/2013/04/ukash-receives-queens-award-for-enterprise-for-third-year-running/ http://www.yourgx.com/press-releases/2013/04/ukash-receives-queens-award-for-enterprise-for-third-year-running/#comments Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:41:59 +0000 Tory Batten http://www.yourgx.com/?p=4504 Ukash, the global e-money network, has been honoured in the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise for the third consecutive year for its outstanding contribution to International Trade.

At the heart of the Ukash mission is the empowerment of cash consumers in the online world. This latest Award reinforces the company’s sustained commitment to this goal which has resulted in a phenomenal 65% year on year growth. Processing eMoney transactions throughout the world, Ukash enables consumers who either cannot or do not want to use traditional credit and banking cards to access online products and services. Ukash is a genuine example of consumer financial empowerment and, therefore, makes a significant contribution to trade globally.

The Ukash brand, recognised by the Queen’s Award as one of Britain’s best performing exporters, focuses on key groups that can benefit significantly from the advantages of online cash; in particular consumers of all ages and nationalities and online merchants.

Commenting on the repeated success of Ukash, David Hunter, Chief Executive Officer said: “This is a remarkable achievement for Ukash, recognising our contribution to UK exports. As we celebrate winning the Queen’s Award for the third year in a row, we believe there are very few companies who have achieved this accolade. The fact that the Queen’s Award is given on advice from the Prime Minister, makes receiving it an even greater honour.”

Click here to read First Data’s valuable thoughts on how integrating gamification initiatives with gift card programs brings simplicity, predictability and affordability, while addressing some of the biggest risks of gamification.

In Africa, we have undertaken studies in two countries that have seen different results in terms of uptake of mobile payments. Unlike our European survey, our African respondents comprised microenterprises rather than consumers. Our research has shown that the success of M-Pesa has not been replicated in Tanzania for several reasons. First, Tanzania is far more rural and has a lower population density than Kenya. Tanzania also has a less developed banking system and lower financial literacy among its population.

Consistent with the Technology Acceptance Model (first proposed by Fred Davis after studying peoples’ adoption of email in the eighties), we felt that the differences in usage between Kenya and Tanzania resulted in a large part by differences in perceptions about the ease of use. There is a wide discrepancy in attitudes expressed in the two countries.

The results below are dramatic with nearly twice as many entrepreneurs in Kenya agreement that use is easy.  Importantly, less than 2% disagree.  In Tanzania, agreement about the ease of use approaches half but one would expect this to be much higher given the length of time mobile payments have been available to micro-entrepreneurs in Tanzania.

It is critical to understand that the Kenyan responses are likely to be the result of “strongly held” attitudes which have developed based on actual experience.  In Tanzania, the attitudes are probably “weakly held” as they would more often be based upon second-hand information rather than personal experience.  As such, we are, to a degree, comparing apples to oranges or rather experiences to perceptions.

Importantly, we measured several outcome variables to assess whether micro-entrepreneurs felt that the new technology was having its predicted impact.  One factor we measured was if mobile payments were positively affecting business growth.

Many looked at the success of M-PESA in Kenya and jumped to the conclusion that the success there could be mimicked easily in other markets.  Our conclusions based on extensive study and consumer data suggest that more caution is appropriate.  While we measured many more dimensions than are reported in this blog, there is a consistent set of facts that suggests that attitudinal and behavioural differences are keys which must be effectively addressed before widespread adoption takes place. The current, “build it and they will come” strategy appears naïve the face of the actual data.

For more information on this research project, please contact Dan Horne at dan.horne@yourgx.com.