Mobile Money, the key for Netflix in Uganda?

Last Wednesday, Netflix announced they are expanding into (almost) every country on the planet. To be precise, it’s 130 new countries. What impresses me is that the coverage map for a major western company has never included every country in Africa.

Ever.

From reports and the announcement, the largest it’s going to be the priced comparably to the US-based service and accept credit/debit cards only. Card adoption in Uganda (and most of sub-Saharan Africa) is abysmally low. Less than 5% of all adults have a debit or a credit card, and about half that do not use it. (Source) Although access to credit and debit cards is a sign of affluence and probably the right initial customer segment for Netflix, the question becomes: what can they do about this?

Mobile Money-based cards are popping up and provide a but adoption is still slow. PayPal/Venmo and Square have shown what a good User Experience is for card payments. Virtual cards just increase friction. There’s no reason to force consumers to use plastic in countries where a phone already in someone’s pocket can emulate a better experience.

Mobile money is a more widely used alternative (despite usability issues). What if potential subscribers could use mobile money instead? The rising middle class, who frequently use mobile money but do not always have debit/credit cards, would be able to access Netflix legitimately.

Someone has already tried hacking something together using the Beyonic API. And after that, someone will need to do something about stable, affordable and reliable access to data services…

By Dan Kleinbaum — COO, Beyonic

Want more? Follow Dan on LinkedIn