Smoothing the path for brands and consumers in the digital world

MEF Programme Director James Williams assembled a panel of experts last month to discuss the new challenges facing brands and consumers in the context of the ongoing global pandemic. As e-commerce and digitalisation are by necessity on the rapid rise, how is the industry tackling the challenges of creating a smooth customer journey for consumers possibly unfamiliar with the digital landscape, while protecting them from mobile fraud and would be bad actors?

MNO Fraud? Bank Fraud? Its everyone’s problem

Last month, MEF hosted a second workshop in South Africa focused on tackling messaging fraud in financial services. The session took place in partnership with the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) with representation from the South African MNOs and 15 local banks. The goal was to explore how the mobile ecosystem can enable better industry collaboration

Industry views: COVID19 responses from the mobile ecosystem

The mobile ecosystem has been central to many of the innovations and creative solutions that have emerged in the last few weeks: not just in communications in keeping us connected but also in the essential sharing of information, entertainment, education, business and finance all now commonly managed at home from mobile devices.

MEF @ ACC: Telecoms in Asia – the rising digital models

The 15th edition of Asia Carriers Conference recently took place in the Philippines, and was a good opportunity for MEF to touch base with an important market.

The Asian Telecom market is growing: local companies are becoming bellwether players globally, and global companies are looking at Asia with interest if not just for the healthy growth in traffic in the region. The increase in population, higher economic growth, and increasing take up of telecommunication service are ingredients for a strong market in wholesale.

Infobip: new use cases for direct carrier billing are everywhere

From Spotify subscriptions to micro-loans, the potential for carrier billing is only limited by the market’s imagination. So says, Ante Ukalović, CEO of Centili – the DCB arm of Infobip. He talked to MEF Minute…Could micro-insurance be the catalyst that propels direct carrier billing to the next level?

Here’s a possible scenario. An insurance company sells a health or life policy to a citizen in a developing country. The insurer sends the forms through the post hoping the customer will fill and return them. Often, they don’t.

Industry Views: AI, chatbots and banking

Accenture’s 2017 Banking Technology Vision report explores the role of AI in banking and customer engagement. It found that 78 per cent of bankers believe AI will revolutionise the way banks gather information and interact with customers.

One of the key advantages highlighted was that whilst AI is increasingly automating customer interaction, it is also providing a more personalised experience.

Chatbots for example are increasingly used by banks to handle routine enquiries and represent a more personalised experience than visiting the modern day substitute for branch banking, a website or app, where customers interact with layers of screens and drop-down menus instead of a person.

What’s in store for the mobile ecosystem in 2017?

2016 was an eventful year for technology innovation across the board. And whilst new models have come to the fore the global base of mobile users continues to grow, confirming mobile’s central role in how businesses innovate and monetise their services.

Everything has been fair game, from the collection and responsible use of user data through to new ways for consumers to perform everyday tasks like talking to their bank, ordering and buying a coffee or transferring money to a friend.

But how will the mobile ecosystem change in 2017? And what are the areas of the ecosystem that are ripe for disruption or collaboration? We asked MEF members to provide us with their thoughts on the big trends for 2017…

Industry views: is mobile spam and SMiShing trashing consumer trust?

MEF’s Mobile Messaging Fraud Report 2016 reveals the extent to which spam and phishing (SMiShing) across chat apps and SMS are pestering consumers around the world.

26 per cent of chat app users get an unsolicited message every day, while 49 per cent receive at least one a week. With SMS its 28 per cent every day with 58 per cent receiving one a week.

And while SMS is still the most trusted messaging channel, 33 per cent indicated that they had received a SMiShing message aimed at tricking them in to divulging personal data such as bank details or passwords for online services.

We asked MEF members and the wider mobile community for their thoughts.

Online security: authenticating a billion users?

Matija Razem, VP of Business Development at Infobip examines the increasingly complex security risks for our online activities, and the benefits of 2 factor authentication for mobile. We also caught up with Matija in person at GMIC Beijing.

The mobile and online revolution dramatically and irreversibly changed the way we make purchases for goods and services. The new paradigm eliminated the need for the consumer to be physically present at the point of sale, as was the norm 20 years ago. Today’s norm are online or mobile accounts and services, bringing a range of physical and virtual goods and services at the fingertips to anyone with an internet connection.

Industry views: how will mobile messaging fare in 2016?

Mobile messaging is increasingly the cornerstone of business to consumer communications. Whether it’s to authenticate a user of a service, a notification or as part of a marketing push, messaging is often the mission critical part of a growing number of mobile consumer services.

There are however threats to the growth of messaging within the mobile ecosystem. Grey routes and SIM farms for example represent unregulated business to consumer lines of communication that could harm messaging’s long-term sustainability.

Connecting the African mobile ecosystem

Last month, MEF hosted the fourth annual MEF Connects Africa during AfricaCom week in Cape Town, where MEF members and guests gathered to discuss the African mobile ecosystem an the opportunities and challenges it faces.
We asked some of the attendees for their take on the mobile situation in Africa and how they see the developing future of the ecosystem across some of the fastest growing markets in the world.