ZunguZ, the international mobile payment platform, has stated that it plans to launch the first social debit card, which it believes will attract unbanked consumers and those eager to leverage the convergence of technology and personal finance.
A social debit card is integrated with a user’s Facebook profile, giving merchants the ability to track other Facebook activity and gain access to data as provided by Facebook’s graph.
ZunguZ believes that the new social debit card will bridge the shopping habits of individuals and turn a merchant’s best customers into brand ambassadors.
This will be achieved through various mechanisms, one of these being a social loyalty platform.
The intention is to further enhance ZunguZ’s value proposition within the prepaid and financial market and is a step forward in plans to capitalise on both on-and offline banking markets.
The inherent value is the social attributes that are delivered to the pre-paid cards via the patent pending algorithms that are built into the ZunguZ platform. It is an offering that speaks to the growing convergence of social media and banking processes and procedures.
Experts within the ICT space have stated that social networking will be the game changer for banks going forward, with the increasing uptake of smartphones and their drop in prices creating a booming market between the two.
Some reports pitch the South African prepaid-card market at approximately R29 billion. Making it an industry driven by two clear ‘pushes’, the one being a versatile, cost-effective mechanism to accommodate un-banked consumers – and the other, a vehicle for banks and financial institutions to widen their service offering and expand their brand into previously untapped markets says Robert Sussman, a leading South African high tech and high impact serial entrepreneur and joint CEO of ZunguZ.
Sussman says: “The prepaid card concept is established internationally and the industry continues to grow exponentially. One of the reasons is because it meets an immediate need – people that must take control over their finances, but do not want the additional burden of charges associated with accounts.”
Effectively the company has positioned itself to add value as the facilitator and service provider linking the consumer with the finance institution leveraging off social networks and social media.
It is already affiliated to financial institutions and negotiations are in place to partner with other financial institutions to expand and rollout enhanced banking services to clients.
