PaymentsViews’ Carol Coye Benson talks with Obopay
Carol Coye Benson from PaymentsViews talks with Michael Diamond, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Obopay, about Obopay’s current status and future plans.
August 6th, 2009
Mobile Payments in Search of a Business Model
“California-based Obopay…operates in India and the United States and is looking to move into other markets. Obopay made news most recently with a $35 million investment from Nokia…Obopay services can be tied into a bank or credit card account or prepaid card. It’s carving out a niche not currently served by credit or debit cards with people-to-people transfers such as a parent sending money to a child at college or to a relative during an emergency…And many small merchants don’t accept credit cards, so it becomes an easy way to pay for haircuts, babysitting and other smaller purchases, according to David Schwartz, senior director of product management and marketing.”
You can read the full article here on ITBusinessEdge.
July 16th, 2009
Mobile Payments Talk with Carol Realini, CEO of Obopay
Exclusive interview with Philippe Lerouge of le paiement mobile with Carol Realini, CEO of Obopay:
PL: Carol, I’m very glad to meet you here in Paris and thank you for the time you are spending to answer the questions for the French speaking community. Due to several fund raising and more recently with the Nokia deal, Obopay is starting to be very well known in the industry. How are you capitalizing on this? Is the market mature enough for that?
Read the whole interview here.
July 14th, 2009
Mobile Money Summit: Catalyzing Mobile Payments Worldwide, Recap by IntoMobile
By Dusan Belic on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 9:43 AM PSTIn Barcelona 2009 Summer
Yesterday I posted an interview with Carol Realini from Obopay. Now she’s on stage discussing mobile payments industry players and how they are in a unique position to benefit from a global approach to industry developments. She talked about financial services, wireless and service providers and how they all need to work together to build a sustainable ecosystem that will propel the industry at a global level.
The recap from her speech:
- First she introducing Obopay, mentioning their deal with MasterCard, and investment from Nokia (NYSE: NOK).
- According to Carol, the success will require three things: a holistic approach, strategic partners, and new payment flows.
- Obopay wants to serve all market segments – unbanked, under-banked and banked users in all markets. She mentioned an U.S. example where according to some research there are 30 million families that are considered ubanked or under-banked — i.e. underserved and over-charged.
- Obopay’s philosophy is “Value is in the network.”
- Then she discussed how different user groups require different services: banked want flexible access, under-banked need full access, and un-banked pre-paid money services.
- Because they want to work with all kinds of users, Obopay’s platform is designed to work in various regulatory environments: highly regulated (restricted) such as India, regulated such as U.S. and the EU, as well as innovative markets like Kenya, where telcos are allowed to perform some business banks usually do.
- In that sense, Obopay works with different stakeholders – carriers, banks, merchants, associations, and consumers to reach its goal of offering a cross-carrier and cross-bank service.
- However, when they enter a new market they pick a key/anchor bank and carrier. In the U.S. that was Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless and Citibank. Now they’re also co-operating with AT&T (NYSE: T).
- Finally, she mentioned Obopay’s plans to support all mobile platforms and even extend to social networks.
And that’s all I caught from Carol this time. I’ll be leaving Fira shortly…
Related News from IntoMobile
June 24th, 2009
Mobile Money Summit: Interview with Obopay’s Carol L. Realini
By Dusan Belic on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 9:40 AM PSTIn Barcelona 2009 Summer
If you’ve been reading IntoMobile carefully, you know about Obopay. They are a mobile payment service provider that got its funding from such companies as Citibank and Nokia Ventures. That fact by itself should be a reason enough to think they’re onto something. At the Mobile Money Summit, I had an opportunity to sit with Obopay’s CEO and founder – Carol L. Realini.
Right from the bat, I could see she’s an extraordinary person. Obopay is her 4th company, and her previous one was in providing technology solutions to financial services companies. Carol said that she was inspired to create Obopay when she was in Africa in a mobile phone store, where she saw how people pay for their pre-paid mobile phone service. At that time, the future founder of Obopay was working for an NGO, supporting entrepreneurs.
Here’s the recap of what I’ve learned from talking with her:
- She emphasized Obopay’s deal with MasterCard that will allows them to reach more banks and financial institutions faster.
- Obopay sees mobile payments as something that needs to work across multiple carriers, to be accessible to all mobile phone users, whether they’re unbanked or no.
- Obopay works with regulators in markets where it conducts business to get all needed licenses. Their solution/service/”the way they operate” is adaptable to all regulatory environments, strict or not.
- They want to work on all platforms, not just mobile – she mentioned they’re working to bring Obopay to social networks. iPhone app is coming this summer and Android till the end of the year.
- Every Obopay user has the same user interface for making and managing his or her mobile payments.
- Obopay has about 200 employees of which about the half is in the U.S. and the other half is in India. The plan is to expand to Western Europe and Africa later in the year.
- In U.S., AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless are distributing Obopay’s app. In India, they have a “tighter marketing relationship” with Loop and Aircell.
And that’s about all I caught from Carol. She is an inspiring woman and her company is certainly worth watching for. And that’s what we at IntoMobile will keep doing, have no doubts about it…
Related News from IntoMobile
June 23rd, 2009
Smart Shopping: Mobile Rebates with Obopay
Here’s yet another very cool Obopay transaction you can do from your phone. Forget cutting up and saving paper coupons. The future of rebates is going mobile!
Do you live in the southeast, northeast or midwest? Check your local grocer for Springer Mountain Farms organic chicken. Between now and February 15th, you can receive a cash rebate of $4 on select products just by entering a promo code into Springer Mountain’s mobile website, where you’ll also find recipes and cooking tips. There are two ways to enjoy this special offer: either send a text message or scan the barcode to be directed to a mobile website where you can enter a special rebate code located inside the chicken package.
Just think of that: get home, open the package and voila! Four bucks is instantly yours. That meal will surely taste better because of the savings.
I’d love to see more options like this in supermarkets. Imagine adding funds to your Obopay account every time you shop. Using your mobile to get rebates is a very practical idea. I’ve never been able to get into clipping coupons or those mail-in rebates. This is really quick and easy, and could become a frugal habit to add to the grocery shopping routine. Plus, it’s green — saves paper and postage.
Don’t forget! You have until February 22 to redeem your mobile coupon. This offer is available to both existing and new Obopay users. Check Springer Mountain’s website for locations.
Please note: Obopay rebate not available in New York state.
Technorati Tags: obopay, rebate, augme, springer mountains, chicken, mobile, coupons, groceries, frugal
5 comments February 6th, 2009
Make Obopay Work For You
I recently signed up as a non-degree seeking student for a history class at Miami Dade Community College. On our first day of class, the teacher sold us textbooks, which were cheaper than buying them at the bookstore. I didn’t the know the books would be available before hand, so I didn’t arrive with a check and I didn’t have enough cash in my purse.
Well, guess what? This was a perfect moment to use Obopay! I completely had the option of texting him $40 on the spot from my Obopay account, so I wouldn’t have to worry about bringing a check or cash the following week.
Teachers who sell books or supplies in their classrooms could benefit from the Obopay option. It would also be ideal when parents need to cover supplies for their kids at after-school places like sport camps or dance studios.
I love finding new ways to use this banking technology. Do you have any original ideas of your own? Please let me know in comments.
Technorati Tags: obopay, teacher, paying for books, college expenses
image credit: www.freeimages.co.uk
3 comments January 23rd, 2009
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