In the RedChip Analyst Report it states
“India has many additional characteristics beyond its substantial remittance market that makes it attractive for AirPocket. The banking system in India is severely underdeveloped, with India’s population using cash at a much higher rate than other leading developing nations”
http://www.redchip.com/assets/reports/DCC_ResearchProfile_20160526_2.html
Having spent 6 months living in India a few years back I took that as being correct, but as I looked into it further it may not be as accurate as we should be lead to believe.
In August 2014 the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a plan to provide a bank account for every household, in a landmark initiative to help the poor.
Included in his statement:
Mr Modi's government aims to provide bank accounts to 75 million households by 2018, and to have two account-holders per household.
"There are millions of families who have mobile phones but no bank accounts. We have to change this scenario," he told the nation.
Another source confirms that it is intended that benefits would be paid into bank accounts.
A finance ministry statement issued on the eve of the launch said that all government benefits, including pensions, scholarships, and wages under New Delhi’s massive rural jobs scheme, would eventually be channelled through the recipients’ bank accounts.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1195110e-2dd1-11e4-8346-00144feabdc0.html#axzz4CxlFDSlf
If I am not mistaken the reason Zhenya wanted to focus on India next was the lack of traditional banking in the region and with the government pushing to have bank accounts for every household our window to get our name established may be getting smaller.
On the plus side it was confirmed that there are more people with mobile phones than bank accounts (but are they smart phones ?)
If you have been following smartphone devices in India you will be familiar with the claims they were going to release the worlds cheapest smart phone costing only $4, maybe not up to the developed countries standards but good enough for India.
http://alexpoucher.com/this-4-smartphone-finally-has-a-ship-date-after-sparking-investigations/
This could open an opportunity for DCC to have preloaded AirPocket onto the device before its sold for a small fee to the manufacture to help cover the obvious loss they would be running.
Cash is critical to all regions and India is no exception a lot of trade in India is on a cash basis and access to cash is just as important to our business model as it is to Indian traders if we could develop an interface that could be used through the ATM to enable withdraws from AirPocket (much like an AirAgent) DCC could have significant geographic coverage in India to support a rapid implementation and adoption of AirPocket. Not to mention additional IP (ATM interface) that could be used in other regions.
I don’t like to cross promote (but I will seeing that got me thinking of this) TSN are an ASX listed company that manage a large portfolio of ATMs throughout India that would be well placed for some type of JV/Partnership or other working relationship (for disclosure I hold TSN shares)
