Marissa DeanE-commerce and online labor platforms could be good business partners for African financial services providers. This is especially true for banks whose scale makes them prime partners for digital platforms. Similarly, banks and other financial institutions stand to benefit from the large numbers of consumers and producers on platforms’ growing networks.
Marissa DeanThere are several important challenges that digital platform businesses are facing when trying to integrate financial services into their business models, but we saw three themes emerge from our recent research highlighting areas where Africa platforms are struggling.
Marissa DeanIn 2018 FiDA Partnership conducted interviews with several key platforms in Africa looking at how platform business models are evolving in terms of financial services. This blog discusses three important ways that platforms are changing the landscape for financial inclusion
Marissa DeanAs we explored platform business models, we found examples of practices that we hypothesize could impede the participation of the financially excluded. We discuss considerations for improving several business practices that could be problematic for financial inclusion, and we highlight three problems and offer suggestions for organizations to consider or areas for researchers to explore more deeply
Marissa DeanWhy would a tractor company need to be in the insurance business? Why would a ride-hailing company start offering credit? It’s actually an old story. From store credit cards in the US and carnês de loja in Brazil, to Ally Financial—the bank started by General Motors—the line between financial services and consumer goods and services has always been blurry. We’re seeing this again: in the recent wave of platformization, platforms are getting into the finance game to support their core business.
FiDA PartnershipPlatforms—a dozen massive ones, and perhaps 500 smaller ones—play an increasingly critical role in the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people around the world. In almost every economic sector, platforms have introduced new “multi-sided” markets, matching buyers and sellers in attention, goods, services, and labor at massive scales. Websites and electronic supply chains are replacing bazaars and storefronts. Gig work is augmenting salaried work. Algorithms and finely-tuned digital user experiences are supercharging traditional buyer/seller relationships.
Bryan PonThe report is based on a representative sample of 1,000 Kenyans with data-enabled mobile phones—“Digital Kenyans”—gathered between September and November 2017 by Caribou Data.
Kishor NagulaIn this post we highlight factors that might influence how conversational interfaces (CIs) are viewed, used, and interacted with across emerging markets in the future.
Kishor NagulaIt is often easier and less costly for CI providers to white label their conversational interface to a revenue partner rather than go direct to customer.
Guest PostThis is post number 4 of the Conversational Interfaces Blog Series and has been prepared by Teller Technologies, Inc., with whom some of our research was conducted, based on their pilot with Orange Money Madagascar.