Safaricom Combines Chat and Money Transfer

Just a few days after a partnership was announced enabling Kenyan citizens to easily transfer money between their M-Pesa and PayPal accounts, Safaricom once again expands their set of offers. The mobile carrier is testing a social instant messaging service based on their existing m-payment app, M-Pesa.

This instant messaging service called Bonga is the first product launched by Safaricom’s innovation incubator, Alpha. The Vodacom subsidiary is hoping to attract more users with this new offer.

Besides money transfers and bill payments, their social app makes it possible for almost 28 million M-Pesa users to chat with their contacts. End-to-end encryption applies to all communications. The users may also request and receive money without having to leave the messaging service via an M-Pesa button. And Bonga will allow them to start fundraising campaigns for specific events.

The new service is being Beta tested with 600 users, and should be launched officially later this year. Safaricom intends to rollout this app in other countries than Kenya, as well.

Comments – Safaricom shifts strategy

Given the overall popularity of instant messaging services, and their gaining grounds across Africa as they expect to win shares in local m-payment markets, Bonga stands out as a reaction on the part of Safaricom. By way of challenging new entrants such as WeChat (which already launched their wallet in South Africa), the mobile carrier introduces new features so their app can become a full-scale social media. Over time, the group means to rely on the part increasingly played by instant messaging apps in African people’s day-to-day lives, and directly reach out for even more customers.

The group’s Q1 turnover was mostly driven by M-Pesa. They expect to rely on this growth through making changes to their traditional approach. They will then change M-Pesa into a more social service as part of their strategy for diversifying revenue sources and adding value for their customers.