3G services for bank


with reference to the news "celcom and maxis to provide 3G to maybank2e.net"

I thought it was a pretty stupid news because of the following:
1. Why would maybank need to partner with these people when it is expected that if you want to access Maybank2e.net via 3G, you would either engage with one of them?
2. Maybank2e.net has been around for 3 years, it is claimed that currently there are around 4k registered user. If they find that 4K is not a good number, why take so long to make noise?
3. Must maybank rely on Celcom and Maxis for creating awareness ?

I have been trying to figure out, for the fact that even though this is a win-win situation, but who is helping who ? who wins more than the other?

It could be Maybank helping these two telcos because 3G is not expected with heavy adoptions for at least another year. Let's not try to guess why Maybank want to help but if it really does, why Maybank2e?

It could be Telcos helping Maybank.. but since maybank2e have been around for the last 3 years.. if they are not happy with the ROI, why wait until now?

Then I remember one blog from Asian Mobile Tech which states the following:

I am aware of the condition of mobile application developers of today as he related his company's business model. Since more than 70% of the use of mobile phone is still concentrated on voice, the demand to use data applications on the mobile phone has yet to take off. Resulting in content developers not gaining much profit from providing mobile applications to companies and telcos. The situation is not helped with telcos eating up all GPRS traffic which is where the bulk of the revenue is from while the CP will share only a protion of the SMS or wap contents delivered.

Based on this statement, it is true that telco only care about bulk revenue from the traffic. And they will try to do anything to get more people to contribute a bigger traffic.

and if we analyse this topic again, you would find the following statement:

Muhamad Umar said the bank was concentrating on its business users because the amount of data transferred back and forth in a business environment was higher than that in personal online services like Maybank2u.net.

I got it..
Thus I feel that this should have happened.
1. Since Maybank2e.net is for corporate, and thus high amount of traffic is expected.
2. High amount of traffic means end-user spend more money online.
3. Maybank will be given certain commission based on the traffic volumn.
4. By purchasing maybank2e.net, probably end-user would get free 3G access for a certain period.

Conclusion:
Maybank is helping Telcos in hope that it will also earn some commission too from the 3G traffic generated from Maybank2e.net applications. The telcos needed this to boost its 3G initiative.

Telcos (Maxis and Celcom) are leaders of the field. At their level, they are always hoping for more traffic to be realized. They can simply add servers to cater for extra needs.

Where doesn the money come from?
From the end-user because the whole partnership programme is to bring in more revenues for those involved(maybank + telcos). And thus when someone actually can access maybank2e via streamyx, but choosed to access maybank2e.net via 3G, then basically it is feasible. They are not going to create new customer but just to rob it from streamyx.

So end-user would be paying the extra cost which would be shared among Maybank and the Telcos.

Comments

princessE said…
A lot of these type of activities are also for branding and marketing. Maybank wants to be the first to offer such a service via 3G so that if one was to think of using Maybank2e.net, they can access either via 3G, normal GPRS or Internet. No harm to Maybank since their revenue comes from customers who signs up with them who do not necessarily only use Maybank2e.net. It's a win-win situation for all as Maxis and Celcom gets to increase traffic on their 3G. It will take time but worth the investment (hopefully).
Anonymous said…
Where did you find it? Interesting read »