São Paulo – Iraq, Algeria, Egypt, and Morocco are the Arab countries in 50 nations where the Brazilian digital services company Bemobi offers services. Established in 2009 by digitizing credit for prepaid mobile phones, Bemobi offers many products in developing countries that range from games and apps to financial services. The Arab countries (pictured above) are part of the expansion process due to the scale of consumers with income and demand profiles with which Bemobi operates.
According to Bemobi’s Service Management director, Ricardo Santos, the company began its operations by digitizing credits for prepaid mobile phones when the standard for credit on cell phones was scratch cards. “Bemobi developed a system adopted by several carriers in which the customer tops up using their own cell phone, including the entire payment process,” said Santos about the company’s beginnings.
After this first step, Bemobi began offering other services to clients who, according to the executive, were tech-savvy but had limited income and means of payment. One of these services was micro subscriptions for games and applications and nano-credit, an advance on credit so the user could complete a phone call or navigation.
Bemobi expanded its array of products and began operating as a fintech, a digital financial services company. Today, it carries out digital payments in some energy companies in Brazil, such as Equatorial Energia, offering the possibility for customers to pay bills through the website, app, and on employee machines, with the option to pay in installments.
Of the company’s revenue, 33.4% comes from digital payments, 31.4% from subscriptions to games and other apps, and 22.3% from platforms as services, known as PaaS, which are cloud environments in which different services are hosted. One of them is mailboxes. Another 12.9% comes from microfinance, which is the advance of data credit.
Bemobi focuses its operations and products in developing countries. “These are places where, despite a great demand for digital solutions, the number of people who pay for their use falls far short of the potential market. This gap is the result of the limited income of the population in these countries and/or the lack of access to digital payment methods that adhere to traditional means,” said the executive.
In its business model, Bemobi operates in the B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer) system, through which its products are offered to mobile carriers who, in turn, offer them to customers. Bemobi’s profit is cents on each transaction but on a vast customer base in the countries in which it operates. Its offices are in Mexico, Peru, Chile, Ukraine, and the Philippines, but the company’s presence reaches other countries due to partnerships with local carriers. Among these destinations are the Arab nations of North Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, and, in the Middle East, Iraq.
Regarding the presence in Arab nations, Santos said they are countries where people also want to enjoy the practicality, convenience, and entertainment digitalization provides. Furthermore, they are nations with the demographic profile with which Bemobi operates. “We see enormous growth potential in these markets. As in other countries, we started with digital services, mainly subscriptions to games and apps, but the goal is to expand our portfolio, mainly with digital payment solutions.”
Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
