VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI SCHOOL OF BUSINESS TRAN THI THANH NGA MOBILE MONEY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AT VIETNAM MOBILE SERVICE (VMS- MobiFone) MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THESIS Hanoi – 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI SCHOOL OF BUSINESS TRAN THI THANH NGA MOBILE MONEY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AT VIETNAM MOBILE SERVICE (VMS- MobiFone) Major: Business Administration Code: 60 34 05 MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THESIS Supervisor: Dr Tran Doan Kim MBA Ha Nguyen January, 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS List of Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations Introduction Research Problems Objective and aim of thesis Research questions Scope of work Data resource Methods Significance of thesis Thesis limitation Expected results 10 Structure of thesis Chapter 1: Mobile money theoretical overview 1.1 Mobile Money (MM) 1.1.1 The convergence of Mobile service and financial service 1.1.2 What is Mobile money service? 1.1.3 Opportunities for Mobile money services 1.2 Benefit of Mobile money services 1.2.1 1.2.1.1 Direct benefits 1.2.1.2 Indirect benefits 1.2.2 1.2.3 1.2.4 1.3 Models for Mobile money business 1.3.1 Operator - Centric 1.3.2 1.3.3 1.4 Key success factors for mobile money business vi 1.4.1 Regulation 24 1.4.2 Product 25 1.4.3 Promotion 27 1.4.4 Distribution channel management 28 Chapter 2: International MNOs 30 mobile money business deployment 30 2.1 Entry mobile money strategy for MNOs 30 2.1.1 Market strategy 30 2.1.1.1 Market analysis (preliminary assessment) 30 2.1.1.2 Marketing strategy 31 2.1.2 Partnership model 43 2.1.3 Technical and IS analysis 46 2.1.4 Distribution agents 49 2.1.4.1 The important of agent networks 50 2.1.4.2 How big should an agent network be? 50 2.1.4.3 Characteristics of a good agent network 53 2.1.4.4 Mobile money agent network model 56 2.1.4.5 Main obligations are contractually imposed on agents 58 2.1.4.6 Incentivizing mobile money agents 58 2.2 Mobile money case study – M PESA (Kenya) 61 2.2.1 Market situation 61 2.2.2 M-PESA Mobile money business 63 2.2.3 M-PESA key successful factors 68 Chapter 3: The case of Vietnam mobile service company 70 3.1 Introduction of Vietnam Mobile Service Company 70 3.1.1 Overview about Mobile Market 2010 70 3.1.2 About Vietnam Mobile Service Company (VMS) 72 3.1.2.1 Foundation and Development of VMS 72 3.1.2.2 Company Structure 73 3.1.2.3 Business Activities 74 3.2 Mobile money – Opportunities for VMS? 75 3.2.1 Market analysis 75 3.2.1.1 Opportunities of mobile money services to bank the unbanked .75 3.2.1.2 How should Mobile money in Vietnam be? 77 3.2.1.3 How to pricing the unbanked? 78 vii 3.2.2 Regulation condition 3.2.3 Technical and IS 3.2.3.1 VMS current technical and Information system 3.2.3.2 Technical applied for mobile money 3.2.4 Distribution channel 3.2.4.1 VMS Distribution channel 3.2.4.2 Develop mobile money distribution channel 3.2.4.3 Incentive policies 3.3.Research Findings 3.3.1.1 Customer’s need 3.3.1.2 Products’ specifications 3.3.1.3 Pricing 3.3.1.4 Distribution channel interest and commission 3.4 Discussion 3.4.1.1 Customer’s demand 3.4.1.2 Products offering and pricing 3.4.1.3 Retailers’ interest 3.4.1.4 Conclusion Chapter 4: Mobile money services business development proposal for VMS107 4.1.Mobile money business development proposal for V 4.1.1 Partners 4.1.2 Market s 4.1.2.1 Products 4.1.2.2 Marketing 4.1.2.3 Service pricing and agent commission 4.1.3 Distribu 4.1.4 Business 4.2.Risks & challenges for VMS when deploy mobile m 4.3.Recommendations for Theory 4.4.Recommendations for Further Research REFERENCE APPENDIX APPENDIX viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Mobile Money services Figure 1.2 Top recipients of remittances 11 Figure 1.3 Mobile money revenues forecast 12 Figure 1.4 Value drivers of mobile money to MNOs 15 Figure 1.5 Example MPESA Cost of non-bank domestic transactions 17 Figure 1.6 Compelling reasons for key stakeholders to invest in Mobile money 18 Figure 1.7 Operator Centric Model 19 Figure 1.8 Strength and challenges to MNOs in Mobile money 21 Figure 1.9 Bank Centric Model 22 Figure 1.10 Strength and challenges to banks in Mobile money 23 Figure 1.11 Payment network Centric Model 23 Figure 2.1 Relative value of MNO in mobile money services 32 Figure 2.2 Potential Service Roadmap for Mobile Money and Payment Services .34 Figure 2.3 The use of mobile Money in Philippines 36 Figure 2.4 The use of mobile Money in Kenya 36 Figure 2.5 Main mobile money services& fee structure of some current providers 37 Figure 2.6 Branchless banking provider cheaper than the cheapest informal option for money transfer 38 Figure 2.7 Money transfer pricing models 39 Figure 2.8 Money transfer entry level pricing in selected markets 40 Figure 2.9 M Pesa domestic money transfer pricing vs transferred amount (USD) 40 Figure 2.10 The Operator’s Role in the Value Chain 43 Figure 2.11 Value for MNOs and Banks 44 Figure 2.12 Agent model for MNOs 57 Figure 2.13 Kenya economic situation 61 Figure 2.14 Kenya Financial Access 61 Figure 2.15 Sanfaricom market share 62 Figure 2.16 How people in Kenya sent money before M-PESA 63 Figure 2.17 How people in Kenya sent money after the introduction of M-PESA 63 Figure 2.18 Posted customer tariffs for M-PESA 65 Figure 2.19 M-PESA Agents Model 68 Figure 3.1 Mobile market development 70 Figure 3.2 Mobile market APRU 71 Figure 3.3 Mobile market share (2009) 71 Figure 3.4 VMS Organization Structure 74 Figure 3.5 Total subscribers 74 ix Figure 3.6 Figure 3.7 Figure 3.8 Revenue 74 Price of banking services vs branchless banking 79 Price of mobile money transfer via informal options vs branchless banking 80 Figure 3.9 Number of Providers that charge specified method of pricing 80 Figure 3.10 Transaction pricing of main mobile money services 80 Figure 3.11 Vietnam money transfer pricing 81 Figure 3.12 Vietnam money transfer pricing for unbanked 82 Figure 3.13 Technical system connection 84 Figure 3.14 SIM Menu image 86 Figure 3.15 VMS distribution channel 86 Figure 3.16 MobiFone shops images 87 Figure 3.17 Authorized agents images 87 Figure 3.18 Point of sales images 88 Figure 3.19 Distribution model 92 Figure 3.20 Research samples by gender and habits 94 Figure 3.21 Research samples by regions and income 95 Figure 3.22 Consumer habit of send/receive money 96 Figure 3.23 Customers behavior and attitude to bank account services 97 Figure 3.24 Consumers demand on bank account services 97 Figure 3.25 Consumers interests in mobile money services 98 Figure 3.26 Consumers interests in M wallet services by MobiFone 98 Figure 3.27 Mobile money services interested rate 99 Figure 3.28 Factors’ importance when deciding to use mobile money 99 Figure 3.29 Current money transfer services transaction/ fee 100 Figure 3.30 Expected mobile money transfer services transaction/ fee 101 Figure 3.31 Expected mobile money fee break down 101 Figure 3.32 Current revenue of retailers and their attitude toward join mobile money services 102 Figure 3.33 Expected gross revenue of retailers when provide mobile money services 103 Figure 4.1 Some main VMS mobile money product describe 110 Figure 4.2 Mobi-cash organizational structure models 121 x LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 VMS & MPESA calculation on retailers’ gross revenue 105 Table 4.1 VMS mobile money product development progress 110 Table 4.2 VMS mobile money price and commission 113 Table 4.3 VMS price and commission analysis for round trip transaction 115 Table 4.4 Mobi-cash retailer revenue analysis 117 xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 2G: Second Generation 3G: Third Generation AML: Anti-money laundering ARPU: Average Revenue per User CFT: combating the financing of terrorism GPRS: General Packet Radio Service GSM: Global System for Mobile communications GSMA: The GSM Association KYC: Know your customer ICT: Information and Communication Technology IP: Internet Protocol MNO: Mobile Network Operator MVNO: Mobile Virtual Network Operator NFC: Near Field Communication PC: Personal Computer SBV: State bank of Vietnam SMS: Short Message Service VoIP: Voice over Internet Protocol xii INTRODUCTION Research Problems Mobile phones have transformed telephony far exceed its needs during the past fifteen years The mobile phone device have for a long time been equipped with many functionalities which have inspired the development of value added mobile services, the use of mobile phones as access devices, and mobile commerce in general These developments lead to a great numbers of lucrative opportunities to mobile phone device merchants and service providers In fact, there are more mobile phones than any other device that can be used to market, sell and provide products and services now The growth and penetration of mobile services across the world has been a phenomenon In 2006 the ITU estimated 79% of the world’s population had the potential to access mobile services and by the end of 2009 figures indicate over 4.6 billion cellular subscriptions are in use giving the mobile phone penetration rate of the world to 68,2% Penetration in developed markets is about 100% of the population and is rapidly increasing in the developing markets Penetration in the developing economies can reach the bottom of the economic pyramid In Vietnam now, according to General Statistics, by the end of Aug 2010, all operators own 142,2 billions subscribers which equal to about 165% the population Vietnam is a really rapidly increasing mobile market Because of the commonplace of such phones now, a new opportunity appears: mobile money, which allows cash to travel as rapidly as a text message All over the developing world, people always purchase vouchers to top up their calling credit at corner shops The small retailers act rather synchronization of the project Marketing: A Product manager responsible for price/product, market research and reporting An Operational marketing manager responsible for promotion, partnerships with distribution partners & commercial activities Finance / BO: A Finance administrator responsible for the back-office financial transactions BO Administrators Customer care A Mobile Money Team leader that reports to existing Customer Care manager A team of existing CCOs will be responsible for MM FO problem solving but will not be dedicated only to Mobile money Sales Responsible of the channel strategy and relationship with merchants Existing merchant managers will include MM merchant recruiting in their tasks IT Responsible for the correct technical network interaction between VMS and the bank, will report to an existing IS manager 122 4.2 Risks & challenges for VMS when deploy mobile money services In the above business proposal strategy, the author made effort to draw a strategy with main factors to launch mobile money business successfully However, there are many challenges that mobile money business faces and especially risks that VMS might meet when starting mobile money business In general, mobile money business has some main challenges In current 94 live deployments, there are few complete deployments which provide customers with full mobile money services (especially cash in, cash out services) The main reasons are of difficulties and challenges of implement mobile money services such as: Mobile money entry strategy needs a more sophisticated suite of products to attract (a) an attractively large number of customers who (b) will be active and a number of transactions per month To this, providers need fresh thinking about mobile money products that will work with the mass market with effective cost Legal policies are an important initial condition to deploy mobile money but it is not easy for MNOs to approach license Agent networks is a very difficult parts of mobile money business in term of both recruiting agents and managing agents, especially liquidity management – which is affected by commission policies So, how to set a suitable commission can support both business profit and encouragement for agents is a great task Culture of the population and consumer behavior is also a challenge to mobile money while more than 75% people are rural and agriculture To educate them with modern e-money in their 123 mobile phone is not an easy task Moreover, VMS should also consider some risks when deploy mobile money services from the very beginning named: First, the regulatory limitations on providing financial services would have great effects to the successful of mobile money business The most important key factor of this business plan is mobile money remittances This product can’t attract consumer if it doesn’t allow them to withdraw cash from their mobile wallet It is especially true in the cash economy So, to get financial services license (by VMS itself or via the partnership with bank) is the necessary condition for this business MNO and banks have been competitive in mobile money space So, in partnership, VMS may have many concerns in the relationship management especially benefit sharing issues In the partnership with banks, Moreover, there would be some strict regulations on KYC, AML/CFT requirement) that cause difficulties for VMS to quickly develop large number of customers due to the increasing the complexity of mobile money services The more complicated the registration is, the less customers will interest on the services Then due to the “eggs and chickens” rules of these services, the launching may met difficulties Secondly, services in Vietnam mobile market in general and mobile money in particular, with the high percentage of inactive subscribers, the investment on system license might be ineffectively Moreover, achieving profit from the services may not ascertain profit for VMS, as the small transaction charges will only prove their worth in high volume The heavy cost arising from a large volume of transactions may overshadow revenue gains So, it is vital for VMS in mobile money business to justification for the infrastructure cost because VMS as well as any MNO has the shareholder pressure for faster and high returns 124 While financial gain was not always the main reason that operators looked towards mobile money in the past, the forthcoming NFC model brings a more encouraging prospect for revenue generation, given its stronger capability to address the critical mass and carry multiple services Single-carrier, single-bank mobile banking solutions mostly don’t succeed beyond the initial pilot because the addressable market is too small In this aspect, NFC will again become a potential saver by bringing a much larger addressable market This is the suggestion for VMS when considering the infrastructure cost Thirdly, the lack of technical interoperability and security remains an important issue that needs to be addressed soon from the initial While mobile networks already have encryption on the messages transmitted across the network, mobile transfers require additional tracking and logging for regulatory demand The quality of security therefore is the necessary and challenge for VMS They also have to consider about the interoperability with other system from the beginning The last but not least, the competition among other MNOs when they also launch the same business Competition for customers and agents is likely to grow as more entrants join the field Right if it appears that the mobile business seem to have profit, Viettel and Vinaphone will soon launch the similar Currently, as stated previously, Viettel has intended to provide Pay-plus (already announced the public but not yet provided SIM) and Vinaphone with Momo But these kind of services just focus on payment and transfer via bank account So the volume is still limited If this mobile money business model proves to be successful, sooner or later, other MNOs in the industry will have similar business Then the competition will be higher, the price will be more competitive and profit margin will be lower As the result, the return will be not as expected 125 4.3 Recommendations for Theory This study contributes to theory in the way that it provides an empirical investigation as to how established theory regarding mobile money services opportunities in emerging countries relates with how mobile money business to deployed in a Vietnam mobile network like VMS Due to the fact that mobile money is a fairly new term, limited of research focusing on how to successful implement mobile money in a mobile network, this study provides a foundation from which further studies may be conducted Furthermore, this study also contributes to theory since there are very few studies focusing on how to measure opportunities for mobile money in Vietnam market, this study provides a foundation from which further studies may conduct 4.4 Recommendations for Further Research Based on the experiences drawn from researching opportunities for mobile money business in Vietnam for VMS-MobiFone mobile networks, this is an area that needs to be further investigated Attempt with this document was to give a potential view of deploy mobile money business in Vietnam market It is important to highlight that this research was conducted with limited resources and that for more details of assessment of consumers and agents’ need and attitudes toward mobile money services, surely more extensive studies should be conducted For this reason, I will now present some suggestions for future research, which I think are suitable topics for a future studies • Which services of mobile money application consumers more demand? • How to apply NFC technology in mobile money for further mobile payment services? 126 REFERENCE Vietnamese Nghị định số 64/2001/NĐ-CP hoạt động toán qua tổ chức cung ứng dịch vụ tốn, Chính phủ ban hành ngày 20/9/2001 English Alex Comninos, Steve Esselaar, Ali Ndiwalana & Christoph Stork (2008), ‘Mbanking the Unbanked’, vol 2008 Policy Paper 4, Research ICT Africa The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) (2010), Case study ‘Enabling mobile money transferThe Central 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Khá thường xuyên (1-2 lần/tuần) Ít (