Mobile Engagement: The rise of the Prepaid Card Mobile App
A very interesting infographic titled “You’re looking in the wrong place” won some rave reviews this week across social media channels as it highlighted that the most engaged populations aren’t where most businesses think they are and yet investment continues to be driven in areas with lower engagement.
6 out of every 7 people in the world now have internet access with over 6.6 billion mobile subscriptions as compared to 2.4 billion fixed line subscriptions for such access to the internet.
What this essentially highlights is that twice as many mobile users now access the internet using their mobile phone.
It is also interesting to note that that Internet and mobile adoption in emerging markets is growing at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world and their social network users are more engaged.
Global businesses should look to divert some of their online ad spend into these emerging markets now to capitalise on this growth.
Online ad spend is lowest in these countries and therefore investment here will see greater a ROI.
Prepaid Card Providers & the Mobile App
It is notable that an ever increasing number of prepaid card providers have been turning to smartphones to give consumers the ability to manage their prepaid card account while on the move.
It is important for such providers to take in the key learnings around social and mobile engagement as highlighted by the infographic especially as they seek to establish a global presence.
A mobile app might be seen as a luxury in some regions but might represent an absolute essential in other regions where the mobile phone (and the app) are seen as an extension to the prepaid account and digital wallet.
A few of the prepaid card providers with a Smartphone App on the iPhone or Android platforms within the UK include the ones below but a number of providers are expected to launch App;s for both platforms in the first quarter of 2014.
- Skrill Prepaid Mastercard: Provides easy access to your Skrill Wallet everywhere and gives consumers all Skrill features at their fingertips including sending and receive money, uploading and withdrawing funds and keeping track of their transactions and access to exclusive consumer offers.
- PayPal Prepaid Mastercard: The PayPal Prepaid mobile app gives consumers the ability to manage your prepaid account using their smartphone. Consumers can check your account balance, review their most recent transactions, find reload locations and also receive real-time activity alerts.
- Orange Cash Card: The Orange Cash App is available on the Android platform and consumers can use it to manage their Orange Cash card on the move. Consumers can view their balance, load more cash, see their transactions, get balance notifications and redeem special rewards – all on their phone.
- PFS Prepaid Mastercard: Pocket to Pocket by PFS is the smartphone iPhone App for the PFS prepaid card and the app can be used to manage the PFS and Spark Prepaid Cards. The App also includes an ATM Finder to locate the nearest ATM (UK only) as well as Payzone top up locations (UK only). PFS and Spark card holders can use the app to check their balance, review their transaction history, load their card with a debit/credit or voucher or send funds to another PFS or Spark prepaid cardholder.
- Caxton FX Prepaid Card: Caxton FX’s travel currency app simplifies the way you spend abroad. It allows consumers to convert currency in the snap of a photo and manage their Caxton FX currency card account more easily.
Did you know?
- 6 out of every 7 people in the world have internet access
- The number of social network users around the world has risen from 1.47 billion in 2012 to 1.73 billion this year, an 18% increase.
- The rate of growth for mobile is 530+ Million (5% YoY)
- Mobile has 91% global penetration as opposed to 33% and 24% for internet and social media.
- The emerging economies of Africa and Asia show the largest % increase in internet usage – Africa grew by 129% & Asia by 76% with Europe ay only 17%.
- In 2013, there are more social network users in Asia, Latin America and Middle East & Africa compared to Europe and North America.
- Middle East & Africa leads the way with active twitter users on 33%.
- Latin America with 55% is just behind America with 59% of active users for Facebook users.
- Asia pacific has 204 million users with 26% registered G+ users, it is ahead of Europe with just 48 million active users and 18% of registered accounts using G+.
- Middle East & Africa has the smallest number of active users with just 7.49 million but has the highest % of registered users that are active on YouTube at 31%
- The average user spends 5.2h on social media
Source: http://goo.gl/ROvD6V
