BUSINESS MAVERICK: Super reach: Vodacom’s mighty mobile market in the making

As part of its effort to transition from a telco into a tech company, Vodacom has announced a partnership with Alipay, part of the Alibaba group and

Vodacom will not attempt to develop the entire ecosystem themselves – in the process becoming a competitor to banks and other merchants; instead, these super apps provide a platform for outside service providers and merchants. “Companies that invest in technology that enables them to understand their customer behaviour better and thereby offer personalised financial, business and lifestyle solutions to their customers are the ones excelling in this space.”

The service, dubbed VodaLend, is actually just an originating service for Lulalend, a five-year-old fintech company, which is more than happy to partner with Vodacom if it means access to Vodacom’s customer base.revenue model is not well articulated. However, Vodacom will earn a small transaction fee off payments and commission off the sale of financial products and other services, but the value, one presumes, lies in the customer data.

It has also branched into lending, offering short-term business loans of up to R1.5-million, with an application process that, it says, takes only minutes.

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