BebaPay was a form of

electronic ticket An electronic ticket is a method of ticket entry, processing, and marketing for companies in the airline, railways and other transport and entertainment industries. Airline ticket E-tickets in the airline industry were devised in about 1994, an ...

ing platform in

Nairobi, Kenya Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper h ...

, that was developed by

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

in partnership with Equity Bank. The product was launched in April 2013, after one year of piloting.

Overview

Bebapay platform worked using

near field communication Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of communication protocols that enables communication between two electronic devices over a distance of 4 cm (1 in) or less. NFC offers a low-speed connection through a simple setup that can be u ...

(NFC). Commuters of public transport would have their bus fare charged off their BebaPay prepaid cards by the bus conductors by simply "tapping" the card with a handheld android device. The service was introduced in line with the

Kenya Gazette The ''Kenya Gazette'' is an official publication of the government of the Republic of Kenya, a government gazette A government gazette (also known as an official gazette, official journal, official newspaper, official monitor or official bull ...

notice that was to disallow the use of cash for bus fare payments from July 2014. The rationale of the system was to help cut loss of income by transport operators due to theft by their staff, paying of bribes to traffic officers and greater accountability which would boost tax collection. Users also benefited from being able to access their online account. In September 2013, Google partnered with De La Salle University (DLSU) and

Bank of the Philippine Islands Bank of the Philippine Islands ( fil, Bangko ng Kapuluang Pilipinas, es, Banco de las Islas Filipinas, commonly known as BPI; ) is a universal bank in the Philippines. It is the first bank in both the Philippines and Southeast Asia. It is t ...

to launch BebaPay service in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. In Philippines, the service was to be used as a prepaid card by students of DLSU. The cards would be used for transport, purchase of food and other necessities.

Shutdown

In April 2014, BebaPay exited the Philippines market only six months after it had launched into that market. BebaPay was discontinued on 15 March 2015 at which point the service had over 700,000 active users in Nairobi. These users were taken up by Equity Bank through its prepaid MasterCard. The service failed mainly due to the failure by the government to disallow the use of cash for bus fare payments as was previously announced and stiff competition from other cashless solutions such as Pepea from KCB, Tangaza Pesa PSV card, My 1963 from

Safaricom Safaricom PLC is a listed Kenyan mobile network operator headquartered at Safaricom House in Nairobi, Kenya. It is the largest telecommunications provider in Kenya, and one of the most profitable companies in the East and Central Africa region. T ...

and M-Nauli from Co-op Bank.

References

{{Google LLC Google 2013 establishments in Kenya Discontinued Google services Kenyan companies established in 2013 Computer companies established in 2013

Overview

Shutdown

See also

References