Ian Watson on his plans to make Refresh Mobile the “PayPal of Cambodia”.

Cambodia’s mobile market, arguably one of the most cut-throat in the world, is peculiar indeed. In a country of 14.7 million, there are no less than nine operators and plenty of top-up scratch cards but… no coins to scratch them. 

This peculiarity encouraged electronic distribution expert Ian Watson to take a bet on the Kingdom. His goal? To make Cambodia’s mobile market largely scratch-card free by introducing electronic payment and cell phone top-up services.

In 2009, he launched UK-based Refresh Mobile, which introduced Cambodian merchants to handheld devices to sell top-up authorisation codes, a cost effective move that could save millions in production costs for operators struggling to a make a profit.

“In Asia, scratch cards cost operators a substantial amount of money in distribution, logistics and security. Our solution removes a great number of these costs and offers a simple way for all networks to access their customer base,” says Refresh executive director Watson, who was formerly head of international distribution with Orange telecommunications group.

“We spent a great deal of time developing a system that was relevant for this market,” says Watson, adding that information on tickets are displayed in both English and Khmer.

The terminals, which employ cutting-edge encrypted technology, serve as virtual wallets: dealers only have to enter a pin code to reconstitute stocks. Merchants aren’t the only ones to gain from the technology, Watson says.

Tickets can double up as advertising opportunities, for example with a discount coupon for a fast-food chain. Further, with each electronic transaction, terminals collect data, such as the frequency and value of refills by a given user, which can be used by operators to better understand consumer-spending habits.

“Our goal is to penetrate the market with a flood of terminals, of which today there are 8,500. We have 16 regional offices that cover 99% of the population,” says Watson, who believes his terminals account for 20% of total top-ups.

In November, Refresh Mobile purchased mobile banking outfit Wing,  which was launched in 2009 by Australia’s ANZ, to allow users to make transfers and payment via mobile phone.

Unlike the overly competitive mobile market, the banking provider sector is largely untapped. With only Acleda Unity and Cellcard Cash offering similar services, Watson is confident Refresh Mobile’s 2012 turnover will exceed $50m.

With the Wing acquisition, all nine mobile operators are now clients, adding to a list that includes internet providers Ezecom and Online. “The mobile vacuum in Cambodia is very attractive to us, and Wing is a tremendous brand with more than 350,000 customers,” says Watson. “Tying it with our distribution model is an excellent way to integrate the two companies’ [banking and mobile phone] expertise and grow the market.”

Watson also plans to expand services to mobile ticketing and overseas mobile remittance capabilities, consolidate the remittance market and expand customer accessibility. Since the merger, customers now have access to 9,500 points of sale – a number Watson says will grow to 12,000 by mid-2012.

On the corporate side, Watson envisions more companies using Wing to pay their employees, as well as for business-to-business payments – a system Refresh is currently developing. “We want to be the number one payment provider in the country, the PayPal of Cambodia,” he says, adding he is in talks with the United Nations and non-governmental organisation to set up micro-finance programmes.

The acquisition has also boosted Refresh Mobile’s international ambitions. “We are looking at a quick expansion in Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, where many still do not have access to banking services,” he says. A peculiar market or not, mobile technology, it seems, has no boundaries.