Justin Ho CO-CEO Utiba PTE LTD Singapore

Answer: Utiba has been a pioneer in the field of mobile commerce and has provided mobile financial transaction systems since Utiba established the E top-up utility to increase pre-paid penetration for mobile operators and established the growth path to mobile commerce. Utiba has always believed that the key to success in this fast-evolving, rapidly-unfolding and ever-expanding domain is to stay ahead of the market requirements.

When the pre-paid segment was becoming a compelling growth path for mobile operators, Utiba identified the opportunity and came up with the first ever electronic pre-paid account top-up system and created an unparalleled success story with the product. This system fuelled the growth and penetration of the prepaid mobile segment like never before and until today, Utiba’s top-up deployment for Airtel, India, holds the distinction of being the largest transacting top-up system in the world.

It was our complete understanding of the domain and remarkable innovativeness that prompted us to develop a mobile commerce system which was deployed with Globe in the Philippines and is marketed under the brand name of GCash. We achieved yet another milestone when we became the first solution provider to enable an international remittance through mobile by connecting the mobile wallet systems of Maxis, Malaysia and Globe, Philippines.

Q: What are the trends in the M commerce industry globally and what are the opportunities for Utiba?

A: Over the last two years, we have seen a steady uptake of M commerce services across the world, though the nature of services and response to them varies from market to market. In the developed economies, the focus is towards increasing customer’s convenience in retail and banking services. While in the developing or under developed economies, the nature of services is more inclined towards creating an all-inclusive financial infrastructure with services like remittance, microfinance and no-frills banking. Utiba today is recognized as a leader in the mobile transaction domain. Our products are designed to be able to serve both these distinct markets.

Q: How do you see the Korean market and do you have any experience in working in such a market?

A: Korea is a market where high mobile density is coupled with good banking penetration. Given this, unlike in a developing economy, we find more potential for mobile payments and mobile banking- related transactions in this market. Our flexible product stack can not only fit well into the developing economies by providing a no-frills bank account equivalent – the mobile wallet – but also in markets like Korea where the mobile phone might be required to be more tightly coupled with the banking and plastic card infrastructure. Our installations in Maxis in Malaysia and True Mobile in Thailand are examples of deployments in similar market conditions.

We also identify a migrant population in Korea, which can be targeted with our remittance product, and the recent postal department-led remittance service targeted to Vietnam can be easily launched through our remittance product far more cost effectively.

Q: Could you speak about some of your customers?

A: Utiba’s customer base is spread across three continents and more than 15 countries. In the South Asia region, Mobilink in Pakistan, Airtel & BSNL in India and Citycell in Bangladesh are already using our platform. This year we have been chosen by Sistema, India (MT S group); Uninor, India (Telenor group); and Myway, India to offer an electronic top-up system. We have also been selected by Banglalink in Bangladesh as their solution provider for the mobile commerce system. Utiba has entered into a JV to form a company called U:Gen in Sri Lanka to provide mobile banking services.

Globally, one of the most successful mobile commerce ecosystems was launched by Globe Telecom, an operator in Philippines, their service branded as GCash and is launched on Utiba’s platform. Other than that we have been working with Maxis in Malaysia, True in Thailand, Bank of the Philippines Islands, etc.

Q: How will Utiba’s solutions help the unbanked and underbanked population?

A: It is the unbanked and underbanked section of the population who do not have any sort of financial instrument available to them. People at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) are the ones who will benefit most from M commerce, since they have limited or no access to establish financial systems. A study in the Philippines revealed that 58 percent of the unbanked population desired a financial instrument that will allow them to store their money safely.

It is this sector that wants to have some sort of financial instrument that gives them safe storage for their money and gives them a medium to transact this money without the physical exchange of cash. We therefore see huge potential for our services picking up in the developing economies and have seen huge traction for our services in the Asian and African markets. The success story of GCash has already proved it.

Q: Are you suggesting that these services will become the equivalent of a banking service?

A: Actually, yes and no. The evolution of multiple industries is more about market segmentation. You can get a massive selection of books at Amazon.com or got to a Borders Books store to be surrounded by physical books. With music, you can buy cheaper single tracks online or go to HMV to get advice about music. In the same way that budget airlines are the low cost providers versus premium airlines like Singapore Airlines, we see that banking services will evolve. The same basic service of getting you from A to B, but with a much lower cost due to a different business model and removing large costs out of the business. The wallet-based financial inclusion of the unbanked is more akin to this example and we therefore see that traditional banking and such financial services that we speak of will cross lines.