..from commoditized dumb pipes to banks
January 19, 2010One interesting development from the Haiti earthquake crisis with marketing implications is the use of text messaging to trigger a payment. Text ‘Haiti
to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross. Text ‘yele’ to 501501 to donate $5 to help with relief in Haiti via Wyclef Jeans’ Yele Haiti foundation.
What these two organizations quickly figured out is that many people will give if you make it super simple & easy. They also were astute enough to look at cell phone companies as more than just providers of a wireless signal – in this case they are a billing vehicle. Brilliant.
I’d be surprised if this form of mobile payment didn’t become wildly popular in the not so distant future with any company that is looking to sell something. What’s more, putting a wireless carrier in the middle of a customer and corporation could breathe a new life giving revenue stream the wireless industry. For the Haiti crisis, the telcos will pass along nothing short of 100% of donations to the relief organizations. However, given the approach of intermediary in moving money from one party to another based on a consumers credit, it’s inevitable the telcos start collecting a merchant processing fee for each transaction, or even interest payments for immediate distribution of funds (ahead of consumers paying their bills). This could turn wireless telcos from commoditized dumb pipes into banks.
What do you think: will texting of payments grow wildly popular? Will telcos start acting (and collecting) like banks or credit card companies?
