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web 4.0, the 2020s and the Internet of Things

We are already entering the fourth-generation internet, the internet of things, but it won’t really take off until the next decade, the 2020s.  Sure, we have self-driving Teslas and Nest home appliances, along with Samsung’s Smart Things, but it’s not mainstream yet.  For example, none of my friends has a self-driving car yet. This will…

The unbankable banked

Reflecting on the last year, it’s been crazy.  I feel like I’ve spent most of the year jumping on and off airplanes.  Most visited cities are London, for obvious reasons, and Singapore.  I must have been there five or six times this year, and that reflects Singapore’s ambitions to be a Fintech hub.  I’ve also…

Which countries are leading financial inclusion?

Building upon Friday’s discussion of how the system treats the poor, there are interesting movements afoot at the Brookings Institute.  If you’re not familiar with Brookings, it is one of America’s oldest Think Tanks and provides independent research into social sciences, particularly economics, governance and foreign policy, for the US Government. The Institute has a…

The future of banking, money and finance [Presentation]

I’ve been presenting a summary of Digital Bank and ValueWeb for a few months now.  It is the story of the origins of moneykind and, as many have now heard the story, I thought it’s about time to share this on the blog. If you have half an hour free, then you can watch the presentation.  It’s been filmed…

The challenges of mobile financial inclusion

One of the gating factors to financial inclusion is the mobile network itself. It sounds simple to say that all of Africa can have access to mobile money, and they can, but if each telco has different wallet structures, charges and fees, then the ease of usage falls sharply. This is why interoperability is a…

The African Mobile Revolution, Part One

Last week I chaired the inaugural Dot Finance Live conference in Nairobi, Kenya.  It is Africa’s premier FinTech event, drawing people from all over the countries of sub-Sahara Africa.  What struck me as I listened to lots of keynotes about mobile innovation and mobile financial inclusion, is that Africa is actually leading the world in…

Using intuitive interfaces for contextual commerce

As we start to reimagine the bank, it is obvious that focus on the platform design and user experience is key, as demonstrated by YouTube.  A second key factor is recognising that the world has changed thanks to the mobile network.  We probably go yea, yea, yea when we talk about mobile, as we’ve all…

Mobile wallet wars? They haven’t even begun …

Looking back on 2015, it’s obvious that blockchain was the big focus as mentioned last week.  There were other things though, particularly the increasingly intriguing wallet wars.  Mobile wallet wars have been bubbling for a while, with stagnant attempts to achieve something from the likes of O2 and Orange. Let the mobile wallet wars begin,…

Apple, Google and Samsung wallets: who’s winning the marketing wars?

Last month, I posted an update on the comparisons between Apple, Google and Samsung’s mobile wallets, so this month I thought it worth comparing their adverts. Let’s start with Apple Pay.  The tagline is: If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone.  I guess the marketing guys spent an age coming up with that…

What’s happening with mobile money? [Infographic]

I'm a big fan of We are Social who publish a yearly in-depth review of the onward march of the mobile social internet.  The reason is that you can see how things are changing.  For example, in their 2012 stats, mobile subscriptions are highly active across the world … … but Africa has a lot of…

Mobile 2012

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