Pierpaolo Barbieri: preference

Transcript context

…Okay, my friends — they’re comfortable with prepaid cards. What does Ualá offer them that a normal, plain old prepaid card does not? Well, first of all, we’re a debit card. In Mexico, we’re fully regulated as a debit card, so what we give them is the ability to build an ecosystem from the card. A prepaid card usually is issued in emerging markets by a company to spend only on that company. It’s an Amazon prepaid card and a Netflix prepaid card. They go with cash, and they literally exchange that cash for a card that can only be used on Amazon. The beautiful thing about a Ualá account is that the account can be used for anything, and the card can be used for anything. It sounds like nothing new for a developed market, but it’s revolutionary for an emerging market. Why? Because what you’re giving them is the ability to transact in anything. You’re doing away with one of the biggest costs that they have and the reason they use prepaids in the first place, which is that whenever they take cash, they charge you a fee for turning that cash into an Amazon prepaid card. The little spot in Mexico, the little bodega charges you a 2 percent fee, and then they charge Amazon, too. We do away with that. We say there is no digitization tax, so if you have 100 pesos, you’ll see 100 pesos reflected on your wallet card. Suddenly, all these people that are now over 100,000 in Mexico say, “Wait a second. You just made digital money as cheap as real money, so why would I use money? ” In the physical sense, I use digital money because, with this, I don’t have to worry about my cash being stolen. I can use different services. I can pay my bills without having to pay an extra to the guy there. Eventually, I can receive a remittance without having to pay an egregious fee. I can top up money. I can re-top up my cell phone, which, also, other people charge for and we don’t. In the meantime, we’re building that person’s credit history, like we’re doing in Argentina but we’re not yet doing in Mexico. I can then lend you against that credit history that is now digital because before, when you transacted only in cash, there was no way to know if you’re going to pay your bill. Suddenly, if I know where you pay your bills, and how you pay your gas and your water, and how much you spend on Netflix, and how much you get every month from your friend across the border in the United States, then I can finally create a credit history in a way that is more transparent and, frankly, easier than what existed before, where 70 percent of the country was outside of the system completely. Where will a cashless society come first?…

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