Marketing Management

Case Study 2
Understanding from the case:
The following case takes us back to the year 2013 where the Airtel became the first
telecom service provider company to introduce e-payment through mobile banking.
Bharti airtel introduces Airtel Money into Indian market. Airtel money becomes the
first application to conduct money transfers through mobiles. It is a prepaid wallet
system to which money is loaded and a customer could pay elsewhere through it just
like Paytm. Even though Paytm was already active, there was no telecommunication
service provider who had this platform. Airtel mCommerce had introduced this
service in Africa in the year 2010 which became a massive success. But when it
comes to India, due to strict rules and guidelines by RBI, Airtel couldn’t gain such a
success like Africa in India. Whereas Africa had a negligible or basic banking system
and rules, hence it was easier for Airtel mCommerce to penetrate into African
markets. Airtel money developed a lot of competition further when few companies
introduced their mobile banking platform looking at Airtel Money. Introduction of
this platform gave birth to many ideas to banks to develop their applications, load
them with banking features and gain customer base marketing this as the USP. Airtel
money could only be used by airtel subscribers and transaction could only take place
between two airtel subscribers.

2.
• Traditional mobile banking enables all types of transactions whereas mobile money
transfer enables only P2P transactions.
• Traditional mobile banking is offered by banks as an extension to banking services in
their official application or website whereas mobile money transfer is offered by the
telecom service providers in their official website or application.
• Traditional mobile banking requires bank account of the user whereas mobile money
transfer requires only mobile number of the user and no bank account is needed.
• Traditional mobile banking is literally the whole bank in your cell phone. We can
access almost every transactional facility which we had to physically visit bank to get
done, whereas mobile money transfer is just like a digital wallet.
• Traditional mobile banking is managed by the particular bank whereas mobile money
transfer is managed by companies who run the telecom service or the application.
3. social - economic - cultural differences between India and African
countries were;
Airtel money in India was a very unique and new concept. it was difficult for Indians
to trust a platform as there was no similar platform like this ever. Airtel money was
introduced as a very deeply planned application for developing markets of India
whereas Africa already had zain’s zap money which airtel rebranded into airtel
money.
The RBI regulations were in a very slow and early stage to change into what they’re
now. RBI had imposed a lot of restrictions and guidelines for cashing out money and
linking with banking institutions. Mobile money was used as temporary mode of
payment when required and wouldn’t permit its users to utilise the money for
unplanned cause. Whereas African countries did not have such a strict rules or
guidelines for cashing out money. They believed in a traditional forms of money
exchange that is through the intermediaries. Hence, airtel money became a lot
successful. People did not just have to use it like a temporary form for physical but
they could use it with all the features effectively and airtel money could do almost
everything that a bank could have functioned like.
Indians were stuck on to the mobile banking services of their particular banks instead
of relying on intermediaries whereas the social structure of Africans was to trust the
third parties.

contributing factors that led to the success of Airtel in

African countries;
The collaboration of airtel money with academic institutions that permitted students to
send and receive money as transferring money through intermediaries was culturally
accepted from a very long time.
The African countries did not have a strong and strict infrastructure like India. The
African government had collaborated with money service providers in laying down
rules and regulation. These factors contributed much towards the success of airtel in
African countries.

Mohammed Yaseen Qureshi

PES1202202920
MBA ‘C’ section