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> M-PESA, a mobile money platform that let people transfer cash via SMS.

This a thing that needs to be more widely known. If you saying, as people here sometimes do, "oh but my new tech could help people move money in poor parts of the world" (not mentioning any specific tech right now) and you're not familiar with M-PESA, then you're just out of your depth and talking foolishly. The real world has already moved past you.

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Yeah, MPESA was and is still an incredible product. A real lightning-in-a-bottle moment. Even if they've struggled to replicate that success in other geos, the original vision and execution back in the 200x's is a textbook case that bears study.

The M-PESA transaction fees are high.

<sarc>M-PESA helps fight poverty through the ingenious application of a thousand paper cuts. </sarc>

According to this page: https://www.safaricom.co.ke/main-mpesa/m-pesa-for-you/tariff...

Fees are high (22-38%) for low amounts, and then they drop into the 1-2% range that is typical of Western credit card networks.

I didn't say that you had to praise it extravagantly, just to be aware of it. To know what the current state of play is. What demonstrably has succeeded, and what untapped niches remain.

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