mSurvey and Safaricom Launch First Cash Economy Research Platform in Africa

Leveraging mSurvey's mobile research platform, first-of-its-kind data feed tracks Kenya's cash economy; quantifies offline consumer spending habits and trends

NAIROBI, Kenya, March 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- mSurvey, the only global mobile-first research platform leveraging SMS and mobile messaging technology to simplify access to credible, on-demand data from the emerging world, and Safaricom, a leading communications company in Kenya, today launched Consumer Wallet, a groundbreaking platform that quantifies offline consumer spending habits and trends. Currently in beta, Consumer Wallet is a first-of-its-kind live and dynamic data feed that leverages mSurvey's mobile messaging platform to track and measure Kenya's cash economy over time, providing businesses, entrepreneurs and investors in the country unprecedented insight into the spending habits of the offline consumer.

While Safaricom's Lipa Na M-PESA service, a solution that allows consumers to pay for goods and services daily through their phones, has revolutionized the way Kenya does business, there remains a significant portion of the economy that is cash dependent. These invisible, hard-to-quantify transactions make it difficult for local and multinational businesses, entrepreneurs and investors to understand consumers and offline shopping habits and trends and develop products that would be of value them.

mSurvey's mobile research platform allows the two companies to have scalable and measurable conversations with individual consumers on a daily basis. To analyze the flow of cash in real-time, simple questions about spending behavior are sent as chats to the mobile phones of millions of consumers, resulting in a dynamic, visualized and nuanced data stream that provides businesses, entrepreneurs and investors instant insight into offline consumer spending habits in Kenya and a comprehensive measurement of their 'share of wallet.'

"To invest in Africa, you have to understand its consumers," said Bob Collymore, CEO of Safaricom. "The in-depth, high-integrity data we are unlocking with this new Consumer Wallet platform is extremely valuable and helps us and other businesses and institutions around the globe make better decisions, relate to consumers, identify opportunities, navigate the terrain and fuel growth and transformation. Traditionally it would take extensive in-person questionnaires or physical diaries to scratch the surface of this kind of data, a method that is cumbersome, expensive and subject to low response rates and human error."

With Consumer Wallet data, which is tracked and analyzed daily, businesses, entrepreneurs and investors are empowered to understand how choices evolve over time, and can build sales models that predict how consumers will behave based on geographic location, living standard measurement and time of year. It also provides insight into how external factors and stressors like weather, climate change, and current events (such as elections) impact demand. By showing how consumers prioritize their purchases, what categories compete for spend and what tradeoffs consumers make, it supports competitive analysis as well. Consumer Wallet captures complex information directly from consumers – whether bustling Nairobi or the smallest villages – via simple, fast, scalable, mobile-first technology, satisfying a global appetite for visibility into Kenya's elusive cash economy.

"Research, big data, social listening and market monitoring are critical to business development," said Dr. Victor Ikawa, Head of Research and Insights at Safaricom. "With the Consumer Wallet, we not only holistically quantify how much cash consumers are spending on goods and services, we can also now understand and track the 'why' – the emotional and practical variables that drive and impact consumer spend. This is a powerful value-add for Consumer Wallet users that unlocks unprecedented insights that get richer and more nuanced over time."

"The team of scientists at Safaricom and mSurvey bring rich experience in research, data and consumer insights and understand how, when and what to ask consumers to gain powerful insights that companies around the world need to make transformative decisions," said Kenfield Griffith, CEO and founder of mSurvey. "By perpetually engaging in intimate conversations with consumers, we are able to understand their everyday spending journeys and uncover powerful trends. For example, the product highlighted that in January 2017, rent went from 10% to 19% of the wallet, and school fees from 8% to 16% compared to 2016. Such key insights allow a deeper dive into the drivers of the change." 

mSurvey's simple and sophisticated mobile-first research platform makes the Consumer Wallet highly scalable. By integrating with representatives of numerous industries in Kenya – from fast moving consumer goods and retail to financial services, healthcare and agriculture – mSurvey and Safaricom will continue to evolve the data feed over time to include sector-specific insights and takeaways. Users can also use mSurvey's platform for customized, tailored research of their own to overlay insights and data. The Consumer Wallet is in live beta in Kenya, with plans to scale across the continent and other emerging markets.

About mSurvey
Launched in 2012, mSurvey is the only global mobile-first research platform leveraging SMS and mobile messaging technology to simplify access to credible, on-demand data from the emerging world. Leveraging the growing reach of mobile phones, mSurvey's robust platform enables users to engage in real time conversations at scale, connecting them directly to people anywhere and on any topic. Delivering elusive data from hard-to-reach communities, mSurvey is quenching the thirst for fresh, credible data that powers growth, ideas, and innovation. mSurvey's proprietary mobile-first research platform serves customers across the globe, providing unprecedented access to rich, real time data from select or random populations in Africa, Asia, Latin American and the Caribbean. Currently, mSurvey connects with communities in Kenya, the Philippines, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti, with plans for continued rollout across the globe. Headquartered in Nairobi, mSurvey continues to grow with regional offices in San Francisco, USA and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean.

About Safaricom

Safaricom transforms lives.

We provide voice, data, financial services and enterprise solutions for a range of subscribers, small businesses and government, using a variety of platforms.

As the biggest communication company in East and Central Africa, Safaricom delights over 26.6 million subscribers, providing over 200,000 touch points for its customers and offering over 100 different products under its portfolio.

Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and with annual revenues in excess of Kshs 150 Billion, Safaricom invested Kshs 32.13 billion in infrastructure this year, providing over 80% of Kenya's population with 3G coverage and providing 2G coverage to 95% of Kenyans. Safaricom has harnessed its proprietary fibre infrastructure to build a dedicated enterprise business, which provides managed IT services to clients in the East African region.

Safaricom pioneered commercial mobile money transfer globally through M-PESA, the most successful service of its kind anywhere in the world. Launched in March 2007, M-PESA now has over 24 million customers and over 114,000 M-PESA Agent outlets countrywide.

http://www.safaricom.co.ke/press-release

For photos, visit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/safaricom_pr

Media Contacts

mSurvey
McKenzie Hurst
msurvey@thatcherandco.com 
646-461-1077

Safaricom
prcomms@safaricom.co.ke 
+254 722 005211

Photo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/475675/mSurvey___Consumer_Wallet.jpg

SOURCE mSurvey