Our company sent out an internal email today talking about opportunities in the mobile space..

And one of the factoids presented was..
“It is estimated that 2 billion people have a mobile phone but do not have a bank account”..

Is a Nokia the new poor?

seems extraordinary to me .

Dropbear said:

Our company sent out an internal email today talking about opportunities in the mobile space..

And one of the factoids presented was..
“It is estimated that 2 billion people have a mobile phone but do not have a bank account”..

Is a Nokia the new poor?

seems extraordinary to me .

A few of those would be in Africa, perhaps, were mobile networks predominate as I understand it.

My sister said everyone in Kenya has a mobile phone. They do everything on it. They may not have cars or food, but they all have a mobile phone.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/24/mobile-phones-africa-microfinance-farming

Africans use their mobiles for money transactions, without having bank accounts.

morrie said:

A few of those would be in Africa, perhaps, were mobile networks predominate as I understand it.

And the middle east. I spent some time in Beirut and was surprised how many people had mobiles ( quite a while ago) and was told it’s much easier to construct a mobile network than a landline one when the place has had the shit bombed out of it.

morrie said:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/24/mobile-phones-africa-microfinance-farming

Africans use their mobiles for money transactions, without having bank accounts.

I can verify that. I have watched it done. Moving money by mobile phone in East Africa is simple and done by millions of people.

I can’t get my head around having money on your mobile and not in a bank account.

Divine Angel said:

I can’t get my head around having money on your mobile and not in a bank account.

It’s pretty simple. You buy a phone card. The credit can be transferred to another phone and/or cashed back to purchase or pay for stuff. If you have $2 credit, you could use it to purchase lunch, or soap or whatever. Or you could send it to your wife so she could do the same thing.

Mobile phone companies charge for the transfer message, so that’s how they make money from the scheme.

I know… but it’s the not having a bank account that messes with my head because it’s so different to what I’ve always known. Ya know?

Divine Angel said:

I know… but it’s the not having a bank account that messes with my head because it’s so different to what I’ve always known. Ya know?

I understand.

But if all you have is $5 why would you go to one of the few-and far-between banks? So, the mobile phone companies become banks, including taking and taking care of your money and providing an instant credit (debit) service. No credit cards, no credit card infrastructure, few banks. Cheaper and simpler all round.

if you have $5 how do you pay for a mobile phone plan ;)

Dropbear said:

Our company sent out an internal email today talking about opportunities in the mobile space..

WTF is ‘mobile space’?

Dropbear said:

if you have $5 how do you pay for a mobile phone plan ;)

Yeah, yeah. (I don’t have a mobile phone plan. I buy pre-paid phone cards.)

not having a bank account is not the same as not having any money…

banking systems in some countries are such that it’s less risky to maintain a purely cash reserve

>banking systems in some countries are such that it’s less risky to maintain a purely cash reserve

Ahh, yes…Greece.

Rule 303 said:

Dropbear said:

Our company sent out an internal email today talking about opportunities in the mobile space..

WTF is ‘mobile space’?

presumably it’s the market space represented by the use of mobile hand held devices…

sibeen said:

>banking systems in some countries are such that it’s less risky to maintain a purely cash reserve

Ahh, yes…Greece.

and Ireland

diddly-squat said:

presumably it’s the market space represented by the use of mobile hand held devices…

Hmmmm…

I can understand the use of ‘our’ when he means ‘my’, I understand that ‘internal e-mail’ is ‘memo’ with nine extra letters and a hyphen, but ‘opportunities in the mobile space’ just seems like taking the piss.

You don’t need a mobile phone, you dont need apps, you don’t need any piece of kit with a lower case i in front of it, youse are just zombie pawns in a marketing game.

Peak Warming Man said:

you don’t need any piece of kit with a lower case i in front of it

I like the internet.

Peak Warming Man said:

You don’t need a mobile phone, you dont need apps, you don’t need any piece of kit with a lower case i in front of it, youse are just zombie pawns in a marketing game.

Actually I think mobile phones are great. If used properly they can be a real asset to your life….like keeping you safe.

kii said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You don’t need a mobile phone, you dont need apps, you don’t need any piece of kit with a lower case i in front of it, youse are just zombie pawns in a marketing game.

Actually I think mobile phones are great. If used properly they can be a real asset to your life….like keeping you safe.

Can you get an irony detector app for an iphone?

pommiejohn said:

kii said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You don’t need a mobile phone, you dont need apps, you don’t need any piece of kit with a lower case i in front of it, youse are just zombie pawns in a marketing game.

Actually I think mobile phones are great. If used properly they can be a real asset to your life….like keeping you safe.

Can you get an irony detector app for an iphone?

:P

Sorry, I now see it is from PWM. For some reason I thought it was a post from roughbarked. I’m a little bit out of sorts and stuff.

kii said:

Sorry, I now see it is from PWM. ….

Nuff said.

>>like keeping you safe.

Marketing triumph.
You get marketing dudes with poney tails and worry beads dressed in very expensive clothes because it costs a lot to make clothes look like they are cheap sitting around a board room drinking expensive water and saying things like “lets tell them that it will make them safe” followed by a lot of high fives and hollerin of “you’re the man dude”.

Rule 303 said:

Dropbear said:

Our company sent out an internal email today talking about opportunities in the mobile space..

WTF is ‘mobile space’?

Dear Rule.. a “space” is a market/area of opportunity.

Thank you for your enquiry. If we could be of assistance in any other way, please let us know.

Stop it :(

It’s an easy mistake to make.

Rule 303 said:

diddly-squat said:

presumably it’s the market space represented by the use of mobile hand held devices…

Hmmmm…

I can understand the use of ‘our’ when he means ‘my’, I understand that ‘internal e-mail’ is ‘memo’ with nine extra letters and a hyphen, but ‘opportunities in the mobile space’ just seems like taking the piss.

sounds like standard marketing vernacular to me…

sounds like standard marketing vernacular to me…

i think that is what rule said.

Dropbear said:

If we could be of assistance in any other way, please let us know.

Do you make these meanings up or do you have someone else make them up for you?

;-)

Michael V said:

morrie said:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/24/mobile-phones-africa-microfinance-farming

Africans use their mobiles for money transactions, without having bank accounts.

I can verify that. I have watched it done. Moving money by mobile phone in East Africa is simple and done by millions of people.

This must be wrong as I still receive emails from Africans needing to use my bank account to move millions of dollars around. Why would they offer to pay me so well, if they could just do it on their phone?

Rule 303 said:

Dropbear said:

If we could be of assistance in any other way, please let us know.

Do you make these meanings up or do you have someone else make them up for you?

;-)

we have an army of long haired pony-tailed marketing droids to do that sort of work for us

Rule 303 said:

Do you make these meanings up or do you have someone else make them up for you?

;-)

Common management jargon out this way.

Dropbear said:

And one of the factoids presented was..
“It is estimated that 2 billion people have a mobile phone but do not have a bank account”..

I wonder how that number was calculated? The number of issued sim cards on the planet divided by the number of bank accounts? Because that would give you some very dodgy numbers.

I have two bank accounts but no mobile phone.

Bubble Car said:

I have two bank accounts but no mobile phone.

I have one account and have had, over the last 25 years, about 6 mobile numbers. I can imagine in this day and age of pre-paid disposable sims that many people would have had many more than I.

Everyone in Vietnam I saw had an iPhone.

Not sure how, on a weekly average wage of $40

And they were mostly iphones, not samsungs.