Mobile Payment System in Malaysia: Its Potentials and Consumers' Adoption Strategies

Posted by KBRE Saturday, August 1, 2009 comments (0)

Nowadays, definitely everyone will has a mobile phone by his side. mobile phone is no longer a luxurious but a daily needs in this generation. Widely known, mobile phone features has been expanded from dialing and answering a call to sending and receiving a message, having a radio, MP3 to payments. Mobile payment, widely known as M-payment can be defined as making a wide range of payments through a mobile device, such as a cellular telephone, smart phone, personal digital assistant( PDA), or any other wireless devices without any cash, credit cards, checkbooks, or having to go online either. What is required is just your mobile phone and you do not even have to be at the point of purchase to pay. You can pay from wherever you are, whether at the office, in the car, at home or just about anywhere!

This brand new system is going to take the lead in the near future. It is an innovative closed loop payment system where consumers will be informed via SMS each time he or she makes a payment. In short, it simply means that it brings payments to you instead of you having to go to make payments, that's why it is also named as Mobile Money. Was Mobile Money safe? Mobile Money is convenient yet secure and rewarding. It is designed with 9 levels of protection to enhance security and to minimize fraud. Each transaction will also be rewarded with instant cash rebate and the “e-cash” accumulated can be used to make purchases at any “Mobile Money” retail outlets. At the same time, participating outlets are also running their own loyalty programmes and offering bonus points to their “Mobile Money” customers, further enhancing the benefits of paying via this mobile payment system.



Mobile Money is a PIN-based mobile payment solution to address the limitations and bottlenecks created by cash, cheques and credit cards. It unlocks the power of the mobile phone to make payments, allowing registered users to pay for goods and services at anytime, anywhere using only a mobile phone secure with a 6-digit security PIN via SMS. This gives the freedom to shoppers to buy products online and pay the merchant using his or her mobile phone without being physically present at the store. Indirectly, crime rate and robbery case might decline due to lesser cash in hand.



There are a great room of potential for this payment system to grow more rapidly. With the mobile payment system, consumers no longer need to carry cash, credit cards, or clicking through ample of different websites or going to the outlets looking for parking and queuing up to pay bills. Thus, it is extremely convenient! What you need to do is to get yourself registered to the Mobile Money service provider and top up with M-payment” instantly and you can start paying your bills or doing remote shopping by just typing a SMS code, and your transaction is done! Anywhere, anytime, anyone!

In order to pay using mobile payment, a shopper must have either a savings, current or credit card account within the related bank. It functions like a credit card. It is advised to have sufficient money inside the shoppers' account so that the transaction can works successfully. The shopper will be billed by the bank accordingly by month's end. In addition, it functions as a debit card if it is tied to shopper's savings or current account. The amount will be deducted immediately from the account upon successful transaction. By doing so, the frequency of bounced cheque and the amount of credit card debts will considerably decline.

As long as the mobile payment system perform as well as it designed to, Malaysians will adopt this new convenient payment method. Moreover, in order to make this payment system being adopted quickly, mobile payment service providers should work hand-in-hand to do aggregate advertising and educate all Malaysians with the benefits of M-payment and lastly please bear in mind that " Your mobile phone is your credit card".

Related links:

http://www.hlb.com.my/news/2005/corn143.jsp?flag=092005

http://www.neowave.com.my/mobilemoney_overview.asp


Prepared by Chong Hui Qi'

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Electronic currency

Posted by KBRE Tuesday, July 7, 2009 comments (0)

Electronic currency refers to money or script that is exchanged electronically in which it also can be known as e-money, electronic cash, digital cash or digital currency. Normally, it involves the use of computer networks , Internet and digital stored value systems.

Electronic or digital money is a system of debits and credits that used to exchange their values within another system either online or offline. Electronic money can use to refer to the provider itself. For example, private currency may use gold to provide extra security such as Gold currency and private organization such as US military use private currencies such as Eagle Cash.

Electronic currency, Perfect Money in particular is wide all over the world. This currency is easy in use in which it does not need any bills, checks or any other bank documents. How convenience is this electronic currency?

Internet users often choose to pay municipal services or buy something from Internet shops and pay through electronic currency. Adding, research shows many companies whose employees do not work in offices prefer electronic payment system. Thus, an employee does not need to go office every month to pay any bills.

Ways in using this system includes send money online through account to insert funds into e-currency and make purchases online, or pay any community services. These functions make one's life easier and more comfortable.

Another benefits of e-currency is the ability to store electronic money in the account at the same time percents which will cover all the inflation cost. In other meaning, if one keeps money in several currencies, the cost of inflation will disappear and without any actions, one can earn a good profit.

In conclusion, e-currency is a flexible tools. Money will be easier to lend to friends at the distance, to pay purchases on Internet or make any own businesses. In addition to that, the processing fee is much cheaper then the cost of processing traditional money, credit cards and checks!!

Additional information:
1) Benefits of e-currency trading
2) Latest business updates

Prepared by Wong Kai Lei.

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Restaurant Reservation Go Online

Posted by KBRE Monday, July 6, 2009 comments (0)

Review post: OpenTable.com-Online Restaurant Reservation














Just have a review on this post and just wonder that there is a such wonderful way in making us more convenient for reservation before out of the dinner. OpenTable is developed at 1999 and currently there are 7000 high-end restaurant around the world using this system and more than 10,000 customers throughout the United Stated, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Japan.


We may have a discussion about the online reservation in Malaysia. Is there any familair online reservation that you know? Hotel online reservation for booking rooms and Airline ticket booking are most familiar online reservation. Airline ticket would be the shopping rush while there is a low fare promotion, those people will online booking one year before the flight date. Cinema online booking also be fond of many young people for booking their seat.

Now let us have an overview of OpenTable.com and get more understanding about what it is. OpenTable is the leading supplier of reservation, table management and guest management software for restaurants. There is a popular website for making restaurant reservations online, http://www.opentable.com/. Once this website developed, it really provides a fast and efficient way to find available tables that meet desired criteria for cuisine, price and location at a specific time. While it is free for any reservation and it save time in stead of making reservation by calling or step in shop. Moreover, the website is directly connected to the thousands of computerized resevation systems at OpenTable restaurants. This service has real benefit as it allow people to make reservation at anywhere anytime. If making by phone call, normally it required calling during business hour. It is also convenient for cancel the booking while just a one click-cancellation features.


With this kind of e-commerce business model, can it be implemented in Malaysia espeacially for high-end restaurants in Kuala Lumpur? From my perpsective, if this business model implement in Malaysia restaurant industry, it would be very successful as some other industries have already implemented e-tailing system and getting a good feedback. The dominant services is one of the way to improve customer services. Nomatter how, invest in this business model require a huge amount of investment as the installation of the software and maintenance fees have spend a huge amount of money in the system. There must the investors who are willing to invest in. If this model is successful to implement in Malaysia, i think it would get a great response among the public.


Sources from:

http://www.opentable.com/info/aboutus.aspx
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/18/business/18opentable.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5087%0A&em&en=da558114de0633ec&ex=1182312000
http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/e-Tailing



Prepared by Wong Chuan Chi

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Credit card debts: Causes and Prevention

Posted by KBRE Saturday, July 4, 2009 comments (0)


Credit card is a small plastic card issued to the holder by a bank or financial institution entitling its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services. It is working on a buy first pay later system, that's why it enables consumers to buy goods and services on a credit term with an interest rate as a charges to pay off later. It is true that everyone will at least have a credit cards in his or her wallet nowadays, especially for the youngsters and teenagers. Majority of us will choose to pay by credit cards during online shopping and online transaction. Credit cards can be a great tool but all too often we find we have spent more than we can manage to pay back. This is especially true when we have multiple credit cards and lose track of how much we owe on each of them. Nowadays, credit card debts are major cause of bankruptcies each year. It is because majority of the people are unable to pay back that they have spent to the company. Therefore, debt accumulates and increases via interest and penalties.

HOW DID CREDIT CARD DEBTS OCCUR ?

1) Unemployment
This can be considered as a main reason why everybody is under credit card debts pressure. Obviously, nowadays unemployment rate is quite high, especially for the fresh graduates. Recent research shows that 80%~ 90% of the fresh graduates are under unemployment. Most of them still need to spend though they are unable to secure a job, due to this reason , their alternative is to withdraw via credit cards rather than cash in hand. This may lead to a rise in debt when expenses are not cut down in line with the reduction in income.

2) Divorce
Fees that must spend for divorce such as attorney, division of assets between husband and wife, proceeds given to children are the way to cluster up huge debts by using credit card if it is the gap between the expenses and income. Moreover, it will lead to reduction in income because divorce may force some people to quit their job and to have a walk in other countries.

3) Poor financial management
Poor financial management is one of the best reasons that why so many families have accumulated many credit card debts. It is because people are unaware to conduct a monthly spending plan and do not keep track of monthly bills. They have never realized their spending on the items that are useless and do not have any value in their life. This bad habit can be seen in most of our lifestyle. Moreover they just keep on spending without any saving .Thus, it has lead to a rise in debts by over using credit cards.

4) Expensive medical expenses
Credit card will probably become one of the useful sources of funds to pay off the medical expenses if health insurance is not adequate to cover the medical bills when one of your family members suffers serious illness.

5) Gambling
Gambling has become part of entertainments in our life. It can be a fun if we are not so addictive to it, but once it becomes addictive, it is hard to stop. Thus, it will surely lead to a financial problem if borrowing money through credit card for gambling.

HOW TO ELIMINATE CREDIT CARD DEBTS ?

1) Making a budget
We can attempt to create clear budget and stick on it that includes monthly bills, food, clothes, entertainment and miscellaneous expenses will prevent from overspending and fall under deeper debt load. Furthermore, we can do a shopping list state down the things that we need to buy and compare to our budget to ensure that it does not over budget.

2) Self control and discipline
One of the best practices is to have a direct set up so that able to pay back the full amount each month and use in emergencies. Thus, self control and discipline are requested to keep these cards in wallet and would not overspend. Moreover, we must have an awareness of the credit card debts and starts to spend less in order to stay away from financial crisis.

3) Stop using credit cards
The credit card users need to stop using credit cards, unless it is an urgent situation. The smart card user only uses the card in place of cash, or to obtain a purchase they can afford. Once the user has reduced credit card debt, they can stop worrying about falling deeper into debt.

4) Use your own saving
In my opinion, this is the best way to get rid of credit card debts. Try to purchase goods or services that are affordable by using our own saving, that is cash in hand. This is the most secure and the best method as we does not need to bear a liability once our payment is cleared. Therefore, attempt to purchase our needs in term of cash if it is possible, you can see the changes as well.

Generally, there are many ways in reducing credit card debts. Though the key point is to start spending less and merely purchase items that does not goes against the finanacial boundaries and attempt to avoid from using credit cards as long as you can.
Related links:
Prepared by Chong Hui Qi'

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