The Knowledge to Decide

With Indonesian consumers increasingly using mobile wallets for payments, E-money transactions have ballooned from 2.6 million in 2008 to a record 203.4 million in 2014. Recognizing the growth potential, the Third Annual Mobile Wallet Conference 2015 gathered industry leaders and government officials to discuss stake-holder responses to key industry trends. Spire’s Deputy CEO Jeffrey Bahar addressed the conference. Jeffrey Bahar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Spire Research and Consulting group, was honored to be invited as a guest speaker at the Third Annual Mobile Wallet Conference held in Jakarta, Indonesia from 18 – 21 August 2015. In his presentation, Bahar spoke about Indonesia’s advancing mobile money industry with focus on four key growth sectors – namely service providers, instruments (mode of service), financial regulatory authorities and services. To describe the growth curve of mobile wallets, Bahar shared a brief overview on how banking institutions and m

The new kid on the block for digital currency – Bitcoin – is being widely used for electronic transactions across emerging markets. The rate of adoption is so fast that the number of merchants accepting bitcoin is growing close to 10% a day worldwide. For emerging markets such as Kenya, Bitcoin comes as a blessing, since PayPal is absent and Bitcoin charges only a nominal fee for money transfers (one per cent or less of the amount being transferred). Industry players from emerging markets also stand to benefit from the Bitcoin ecosystem expansion. For instance, Bitcoin China (BTC) – one of the world’s largest digital exchanges – raised USD5 million through funding from venture capitalists in November 2013. Will Bitcoin become the alternate currency for consumers worldwide? https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/spirethoughts/bitcoin-builds-momentum-in-emerging-markets/