Pakistan has millions of mobile, internet, and Facebook users—what business ideas could monetize this market, and how should products be delivered and paid for?
Payments
Asked by Question Bot08/Jul/20141 answer
1 Answer
F
Faisal Khan
Answered 08/Jul/2014
The biggest issue here is really not the apps and product deliver, etc. it is the cellular companies and the revenue share.
The five companies (Mobilink, Telenor, Zong, Ufone and Warid) all have a monopoly when it comes to USSD and marketing on their platform. The revenue sharing agreements they have with app developers are extremely one-sided, favouring the telcos. Who in their right mind would want 70% of their income to go to telcos and that too with a 3-6 month waiting period on being paid.
The CCP (Competitive Commission of Pakistan) need to look into this issue and ensure that this tight alliance needs to be broken (just as they did with the ATM switch charges in the Banking arena with the alliance of 28 banks).
With smartphones it will not be much of an issue to get paid in the coming months as a few payment providers are coming onboard.
However, this leaves a huge swath of people with regular (non-smart phones) who can be a potential market for you, but you cannot work with them because of the unfair revenue share agreement that the telcos force on you.
The five companies (Mobilink, Telenor, Zong, Ufone and Warid) all have a monopoly when it comes to USSD and marketing on their platform. The revenue sharing agreements they have with app developers are extremely one-sided, favouring the telcos. Who in their right mind would want 70% of their income to go to telcos and that too with a 3-6 month waiting period on being paid.
The CCP (Competitive Commission of Pakistan) need to look into this issue and ensure that this tight alliance needs to be broken (just as they did with the ATM switch charges in the Banking arena with the alliance of 28 banks).
With smartphones it will not be much of an issue to get paid in the coming months as a few payment providers are coming onboard.
However, this leaves a huge swath of people with regular (non-smart phones) who can be a potential market for you, but you cannot work with them because of the unfair revenue share agreement that the telcos force on you.