Mobile payment systems in Malaysia : Its potentials and consumers' adoption strategies

Nowadays many of us live with mobile phones at anytime and anywhere. Traditionally it started function as making phone calls and text messaging, and now eventually it had becoming more advanced by providing payment by using mobile phones—mobile payment. Consumers are able to pay for a wide range of goods and services as if they are using credit card for payments.

For more information regarding mobile payments:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Payment
http://www.neowave.com.my/mobilemoney_howitworks.asp

Potentials of mobile payment systems in Malaysia
With reference to Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz’s statement in "Mobile Digital Signature Symposium 2008" on 3rd June 2008, there are 88% of Malaysian population subscribed to mobile phone services, and this high penetration rate shows that mobile phone networks is increasingly becoming a population channel for Malaysians. Moreover, there are 55 million deposit accounts in Malaysia’s banking system from our population of 27 million indicates a high percentage of population have deposit accounts with the banking system. Eventually mobile payment systems will have a very high potential in Malaysia since high percentage of mobile phone subscriber and high rate of participation of population in banking system forms an ideal platform for mobile payment.

Consumers’ adoption strategies
In order to widen the reach of mobile payment to the population, new and innovative mobile payment products and services are important for offering simplicity, convenience and speed at minimal cost, as well as providing efficient and cost-effective method of delivering mobile payment services even in the remote areas.

Common payment infrastructure and standardizing the payment messaging format for wider acceptance of mobile payment are essentials for the growth of mobile payment. Thus consumer can easily make payment using mobile phones without having the difficulty of lack of payment infrastructure while paying or different payment format which might confuse them.

Moreover, the industries should expand the range of products and services providing mobile payments to ensure the consumers are able to conveniently use mobile phones for making their payment. The industries should also formulate a transparent and cost-effective pricing framework to provide incentives through using mobile payment, for instance give a rebate of 5% if pay by using mobile payment to increase consumers’ participations.

The Government also has to ensure the security and integrity of mobile payment by providing supporting regulatory and legal framework. This is to strengthen the consumers’ confidence in the safety, security and reliability of mobile payment as their payment method. Thus, education and outreach programmes can be use as a mean to increase the consumer awareness and confidence in mobile payments.