Saturday, July 4, 2009

Mobile Payment Systems in Malaysia: Its Potentials and Consumers' Adoption Strategies

No more queues or waiting! This is happening in Malaysia. By using a mobile payment system, you can make your payment to your seller without queuing up.

Mobile payment (also called as mobile web payments or WAP billing) is a collection of money from consumer via a mobile device, such as mobile phone, Smartphone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or any other devices. Without having cash on hand, cheques or credit card, a consumer can make payment transaction through a mobile device to pay for services and digital or hard goods such as music, ringtones, transportation fares, tickets and so on.

In Malaysia, there are some examples of mobile payments available for us, one of them is known as Mobile Money. It allow a registered user to make payments at anytime, anywhere using only a mobile phone coupled with 6-digits security Pin via sms. This is so easy and convenient way to settle our bills. With such application, this will definitely be a great boom to the e-commerce industry in Malaysia. Besides, some well-known companies such as Maxis, CELCOM and many more, are also coming up this concept to update their payment services. To read more about Maxis Mobile Payments, click on this link.

Most developed and developing countries have well adopted this mobile payment. Also, someone estimated that combined market for all types of mobile payments is reach $600B globally by 2013. Thus, you may foresee that everyone will pay by just using their mobile phone while shopping at everywhere at anytime somewhere in the future.

Time is money. Hence, people often want to get into the fast lane to save time or settle their payments in a speedy way. A practically example of mobile payment, in which adopted by Malaysian is using Touch 'n Go and Smart Tag to pay their highways tolls car parking fees, LRT and bus fees, and so on. Besides, Maxis has introduced an innovative service to market to save time for purchasing and paying transportation charges with a tap of the user's mobile phone, is known as Maxis FastTap. In addition, the users can use their Maybankard to pay Visa paywaves outlets such as Watson, Parkson, Jusco and many more.

In order to make mobile payment system in Malaysia a real success, following steps should be taken immediately. First, educate the consumers about mobile payment system, the usage and the functions of it. Also, cooperate with more banks and merchants to widen the ability of mobile payments. Other than that, offer more security collaborate solution for mobile payment to gain consumers' satisfaction and confidence on the system.

Prepared by Carrie Hon

No comments: