The aesthetics of mobile money platforms in Haiti

Mobile money is touted as a promising new way to “bank the unbanked” and as a “product for the poor” for the three-quarters of the world’s population who lack access to a formal bank account. Not tied to an actual bank account, it allows people to send small amounts of money at low cost from their own mobile phones. In Haiti, mobile money was introduced after the earthquake of January 2010 as a way for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to move money, given that widespread damage to financial, communications, and transport infrastructure had crippled Haiti’s underdeveloped financial system. It became publicly available in November 2010, with two mobile money services originally operating: Digicel’s service, called TchoTcho Mobile, and Voilá’s service, called T-Cash. The two services were very similar in what they offered and their pricing structures. Like M-PESA, Kenya’s highly successful mobile banking system, mobile money allows customers to transfer small amounts of money at a far lower cost than through formal transfer services such as Western Union. Today, mobile money services are available in fifty-eight countries around the world and are viewed as one of the most novel innovations of mobile media platforms.