While many mobile operators globally are under pressure as people make fewer phone calls and data pricing becomes increasingly competitive, Kenya continues to thrive, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Even though it has been more than a decade since mobile money was introduced in East Africa, for Safaricom, Kenya’s biggest mobile operator, mobile money revenues accounted for 27% of total revenues by the end of 2017, and reached 28% as of May 2018.
Simon Andersson, Technology Analyst at GlobalData says: “Safaricom has continued to develop its digital services by expanding far beyond traditional telecoms territory in order to drive mobile money usage. Late last year the company launched its own e-commerce platform, Masoko, which also features Safaricom’s M-Pesa mobile money service as the main payment method.
“The operator has been keen to establish a foothold in a potentially high-value market segment in this middle-income economy before international giants such as Amazon enter the market.”
Additionally, Safaricom is currently in the trial stages of a social media/chat platform app which, of course, also incorporates the company’s highly successful money transfer service, according to GlobalData.
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