Today, we’re publishing a case study that compares Thailand’s True Money with the industry’s best known success story, M-PESA.

Launched in 2005, True Money is now used by 6 million customers. The system processes over USD$900 million in electronic payments and 120 million transactions per year. This doesn’t match the US$3.5 billion in p2p payments M-PESA processes per year, but it does suggest that the model has gained some traction.

What’s most interesting is just how unique True’s approach has been. Whereas M-PESA has scaled remarkably well as a money transfer offering, True Money has gained its traction as a payments offering. That is, their scratch cards, e-wallet and 8,000 ‘True Money Express’ agents form the basis of a system designed to process True Group bill payments, 3rd party bills, and prepaid bills from niche issuers.

True Money and M-PESA differ in many ways, but are both success stories in their own right. Indeed, True’s success to date vividly illustrates how market conditions, customer needs, and operator assets shape the nature of the mobile money opportunity in every market.

Read the case study and share your thoughts below.