Even with over 900 million subscribers, India is yet to see strong demand for electronic account services that allow consumers to transfer money and pay bills using their mobile phones, experts say.
Research firm Greyhound said mWallet as a service is an untapped market in India. It gives telecom vendors scores of opportunities to tap into markets where people do not have banks or bank accounts.
It can easily be applicable in sectors like ticketing, communication or even paying at petrol stations.
Greyhound Research CEO Sanchit Vir Gogia feels that the opportunities are enormous.
He says most of the telecom giants already have this service and the others are following. Vodafone and Airtel have been heavily promoting their mWallets within in their enormous subscriber base.
Vendors like Itz cash, Paytm, Mobiwick, are one step ahead in terms of allowing the customers to make transactions beyond their utility bills, he added.
“Giants like IBM, Google are also developing mobile wallet services. It is a reflection on the possibilities that mWallet possess,” Gogia said.
However, almost all the players feel that one of the major factors that blocks the effective utilisation of mWallet is lack of awareness.
“mWallets has its advantages, there are challenges that both government and firms needs to address. Security is one of them. The digital age is brutal and the gatekeepers need to be strong to build the confidence of the customers,” Gogia said.
While security layers are being implemented through biometrics and voice recognition, it does not solve the problem for phones that are not smart. There are loop holes where companies need to work together to solve these issues, he added.
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