Juniper Research found that there is a significant opportunity for the providers and vendors of mobile money transfer services as the market takes off, beginning as soon as 2010. The study explored how mobile money transfer will transform the ability of the underbanked population and migrant workers to make remittances, using their mobile phones as mobile wallets.
Report author Howard Wilcox provided some insight into this new market: "New services and trials are being announced almost every day. Judging from the response from users so far to services like M-PESA and SmartMoney, prospects for these services are excellent, both in developing and developed countries. For many people it has been costly and difficult for them to transfer money via existing services even to friends and family; using mobile phones solves the problem."
The research also shows that global annual gross transaction value (including the remittance itself) will grow over 10 times between 2009 and 2013. The opportunity for companies providing these new services is forecast to exceed $5bn by 2013.
Additionally, the top three regions (Western Europe, Africa and Middle East and Far East and China) will represent over 60% of the global mobile money transfer gross transaction value by 2013, Juniper said.