Citation
Mobile Payments Go Viral: M-PESA in Kenya
TL;DR
17 million subscribers by December 2011
This World Bank analysis documents M-Pesa's explosive growth trajectory and analyzes the agent network as critical symbiotic infrastructure. The paper shows how small businesses becoming M-Pesa agents gained foot traffic while providing essential cash services - a mutualistic exchange that scaled faster than any centralized deployment could achieve.
The research validates the chapter's core thesis: distributed mutualistic networks can build infrastructure that centralized extractive models cannot.
Key Findings from Bank (2010)
- 17 million subscribers by December 2011
- 65% of Kenyan households reached by end of 2009
- Agent network as critical infrastructure
- Agents gained foot traffic while providing cash services