Emerging Asia on the Cusp of Mobile Finance & Commerce

Although mobile money is most commonly associated around the world with East Africa, its origins lie in services that went live in the Philippines several years before African MNOs launched that continent’s first deployments. In 2004, Globe Telecom launched GCash, the Philippines’ second mobile money deployment. In the decade since then, the mobile finance and commerce (MFC) ecosystem in the Philippines and across Emerging Asia has grown to the point where it is on the verge of producing “MFC 2.0”, leading the world in MFC innovation.

The rapid pace of technological change and falling smartphone and data prices are enabling companies in Southeast Asia and beyond to take advantage of the popularity of social media and new patterns in m-commerce to deliver more advanced MFC services. In little more than a year it is likely that more than half of all Filipino mobile phones will be smartphones, and by the end of the decade almost three quarters of Filipino users will have upgraded from feature phones to smartphones. The improved UX that accompanies this switch means that trends towards using mobile phones for a wider variety of use cases than making calls and texting become norms, as they have in more advanced economies. Southeast Asia’s relatively young population means that in a few short years the majority of the region’s population will have grown up conversant in social media, texting and mobile browsing, barely able to imagine a world without mobiles.

The youth of today are the consumers of tomorrow, and not only will they demand access to digital content on their phones, they already increasingly expect products such as loans, savings and insurance to be available to them via the mobile channel. Such expectations are already paving the way for the introduction of even more complex, multi-layered MFC value propositions. The diversity of Southeast and Emerging Asia and its connection to significant international remittance corridors is driving forward the adoption and usage of mobile wallets and related products and services. Consequently, Southeast Asia presents possibly the best opportunity globally for a cross-pollination of MFC-related ideas that would be unlikely even in other regions considered mobile money hotspots.

What exactly MFC 2.0 will look like will the focus of attention at Mondato Summit Asia, which will take place on October 21^st and 22^nd in Manila, the Philippines. Mondato Summits seek to offer clarity amid a chaotic and rapidly developing industry by identifying the key issues that will shape the evolution of MFC in the years ahead. Combining a unique mix of information sharing, solution seeking, and networking, the Mondato Summits series aims to help stakeholders navigate the fast-growing, but highly fluid and complex, MFC space.

Mondato Summit Asia will bring together innovators and C-level industry leaders from right across the MFC ecosystem. In addition to banks and MNOs such as Globe Telecom and BPI Globe BanKo, in attendance will be key stakeholders from the insurance, retail and tech sectors, as well as thought leaders, startups and innovative service provides, to expand upon and expound a content-rich agenda.

By bringing together this caliber of experts and peers in an intimate setting, Mondato Summit Asia 2015 will thrash out some of the details of what MFC 2.0 is likely to look like. Which players might be best placed to lead this revolution? MNOs, banks, tech and specialist vendors, even perhaps merchants, could all lay claim to leadership. What innovative business models are suited to the region and have the potential to transform MFC? How will the transformation of the mobile phone into a small personal computer commoditize vast amounts of data about consumers? What will be the role of big data in delivering faster growth? What are the stumbling blocks that may hold back the development of the market? These are just some of the questions that will be brought to the fore, and answers to which will be sought, at Mondato Summit Asia 2015.

To register or to read more about Mondato Summit Asia and the Mondato Awards, please visit www.mondatosummit.com.

For more information on speaking and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Arielle Jaffe at [email protected] or +33 6 95 93 43 95.