Individual research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Individual research - Essay Example Safaricom’s competitors include Airtel Kenya (earlier known as Celtel), Telkom Orange, and Yu Mobile. This product was commercially launched in 2007 as a first in the world. M-PESA enables Safaricom’s subscribers to transfer money to both users and non-users, pay bills (such as electricity and water bills), deposit and withdraw money and purchase airtime. It offers traditional banking services without a need for a user to have a bank account or visit a bank’s branch. M-PESA deposits and withdraws are mainly made at a region-wide network of appointed agents who include airtime vendors and retail outlets (Punam, & Manka 56). M-PESA had several unique, rare and hard to imitate qualities which made it almost impossible to imitate. First, this product had never existed at any place in the world. There was therefore no model which Safaricom competitors could imitate. Safaricom therefore gained an advantage of offering a service that was not provided by other competing mobile phone company. Another distinctive quality of M-PESA was its technological platform. This service does not use the common internet banking platform. Competitors also lacked knowledge of this new technological invention initiated by Safaricom (Punam, & Manka 61). This technology was not available in the market. Safaricom’s M-PESA project was also capital intensive due to large organizational and operational costs associated with implementation of this service. On of the first mover advantages of Safaricom is establishment of a new leading regional brand. Safaricom is the most popular company in East and Central Africa. It records the highest profits in the region with M-PESA continuously accounting for an increasingly higher proportion of its profits every year. The company’s brand is so strong that it received a regional record 532% oversubscription of its Initial Public Offer in 2008. A second first mover advantage of Safaricom was becoming a market leader in both money