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....half of the total user base.

The global remittance market has grown rapidly over the past decade. In 2010 remittances through formal channels amounted to US$ 440 billion, of which, developing countries received an estimated US$ 325 billion. The vast majority of these transactions are still cash-to-cash transactions, but the share of digital transactions is steadily increasing.

Driven by the development of mobile money systems in emerging markets, Berg Insight estimates that US$16 billion worth of international money transfers will be received with mobile phones in 2015. Similarly, US$ 5.5 billion worth of international remittances will be sent using mobile phones in 2015.

International airtime transfer is a rapidly growing niche within the overall international value transfer market. It is a low margin high volume business, with a small number of leading service providers in the field.

There are a large number of smaller vendors who have joined the airtime transfer market more recently. Berg Insight estimates that the total value of international airtime transfer will grow from US$ 130 million in 2010 at a compound a CAGR of 67 percent to reach US$ 1.67 billion in 2015.

Many new companies have entered the mobile money industry as technology vendors in the past year, including the likes of Ericsson, SAP and Gemalto. The competitive landscape is intense with around 70 vendors competing in the industry, of which many need to reach a critical mass of deployments over the next two years in order to stay in business in the longer term.

Yet, the level of consolidation among technology vendors serving MNOs and third party service providers is high, with around 75 percent of mobile money deployments running on the platforms of five leading vendors. In contrast, the landscape among vendors providing financial institutions is highly fragmented with no clear leaders.

Active users of mobile money services are set to double in the next 2 years Mobile financial services are causing a significant transformation in the financial services, payments and international remittance industries.

In developing regions such as Africa, the mobile phone will become the primary digital channel for people to conduct financial services in the coming years. Financial institutions are beginning to realize the importance of mobile phones to reach new clients viewing mobile money services as high-priority strategic projects. Also mobile operators and third party service providers are ramping up their efforts to target the huge unbanked populations in emerging markets", said Lars Kurkinen, Telecom Analyst, Berg Insight. "The number of live mobile money services has thus grown at an explosive rate during the past two years and recently reached as many as 300 commercial deployments."

The report also identifies mobile international value transfer as a high-growth market and an important revenue source for mobile industry players. Berg Insight estimates that US$ 16 billion worth of international money transfers will be received using mobile phones in 2015, up from less than US$ 1 billion in 2010. Berg Insight also forecasts that international airtime transfers will grow at a CAGR of 67 percent from US$ 130 million in 2010 to reach US$ 1.67 billion in 2015.......more... >

Click here to learn more about Berg Insight: Mobile Money in Emerging Markets market study.

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