MT2 has grown its business in mobile content, payment, and advertising since 2014. It has expanded its in-house content production capabilities and signed partnerships with many mobile payment companies in the region. While mobile advertising growth was lower than projected due to regional factors, MT2 is focusing on helping mobile network operators enhance their existing mobile advertising channels. MT2 has seen a 50% increase in its mobile payment business volume, positioning it among the top 20 players globally in that industry. It plans to leverage its technological capabilities to incubate and accelerate new startups in the coming years.

1. 56INTERVIEWAPRIL2015
ould you tell us
about MT2’s latest
achievements and
activities?
Since 2014, MT2
has grown in terms
of business and
activities, which are mainly focused
on mobile content, mobile payment
and mobile advertising.
To start with, our latest achievements
in Mobile Content, it includes mainly
the internal enhancement of in-house
content production. We now produce
and own our own content while
still maintaining our outsourcing
activities for a wider and richer set
of content variety / portfolio… Four
years ago, we used to exclusively
acquire content by either buying or
hiring rights, however as of last year,
things changed when taking this
strategic decision and implemented
it.
Consequently, we have enhanced
our capabilities and hired qualified
people specialized in video, 3D
and 2D content development while
furthermore making another big
investment in production equipment
and tools to obtain today our
running in-house audio and video
studios.
In terms of mobile payment, the
name of the game is to grab the
traffic transactions of OTTs that
are today eager to look for ways
to introduce mobile payment into
their existing payment methods,
by getting in touch with mobile
payment companies. In this case,
MT2 played an influential role in the
region and signed off with many of
those companies that have chosen
MT2 as their MENA strategic mobile
payment partner, to bill through
mobiles, transactions for Facebook,
Google, Microsoft Mobile, Sony PS,
Deezer, and many others… Today
we count more than 50 business
partners and merchants who deal
daily with MT2 on a regional basis.
When it comes to mobile
advertising, the market seemed
much more promising than the way
it is in reality in terms of business
MT2 has pioneered as usual new successful
achievements in the mobile industry. Telecom Review
has got into the loop, by interviewing Naji Bouhabib,
CEO, MT2, who introduced us to the company’s new
mobile payment technology as well as their upcoming
plans.
C
Moving Forward in
the Mobile Industry

2. 57INTERVIEWAPRIL2015
volumes and growth, which till
date, has still not been manifested
as anticipated. Last year, MT2
projected high expectations and
velocity in that particular sector
based on figures that deemed to
be promising according to research
and forecasts, however the official
numbers turned out lower as a result
to several inevitable factors such
as the region’s slow progression,
the considerable reduction of the
advertising budgeting in the region
linked to the region’s political-
security condition which has led
to many MNOs’ serious economic
crisis.
As a matter of fact, MT2 had
slowed down its development plan
in this sector; rather than looking
to develop new mobile marketing
channels, we decided to focus
more on helping the MNOs in
enhancing their existing mobile
advertising channels, by building
and outsourcing a mobile marketing
campaign manager solution,
coupled with a data mining tools
and efficient recommendation
engine. It is only a matter of time
before mobile marketing picks up
and booms in the region; mobile
will undeniably offer many future
opportunities for several advertising
channels.
Could you give us more details
about your mobile payment or DOB
solution?
I have to start by clarifying the
terminology. When we say “mobile
payment”, we are not referring
to mobile wallet solutions or
traditional payment transactions
executed through mobiles... Instead,
“Mobile payment” is a solution
that allows subscribers to pay
in a first step, for digital goods
that are in digital format (such
as games, applications, online
courses, videos, songs, etc.) using
their mobile number and credit.
As a result, postpaid subscribers
will be charged on their monthly
bill, whilst prepaid subscribers will
have the fees deducted directly
from their available mobile credit.
Traditionally, users had to send an
SMS (or initiate the reception of an
SMS) to execute a mobile payment,
however with the new DOB (Direct
Operator Billing) solution that
has been implemented so far by
many operators, the digital stores
and OTTs, are able to facilitate
the mobile payment experience
while offering flexible tariff rates,
faster and more secured mobile
transactions.
The results of last year were
spectacular: MT2 has increased
by almost 50 percent its mobile
payment business volume!
While carriers have consistently
increased their payout to OTTs
and big merchants, reaching up to
85 percent of the EUP, the mobile
payment providers such as MT2,
that are responsible of integrating
the DOB solution and connecting the
merchants, are being able to justify
a very small margin similar to the
one earned by PayPal and credit
cards providers.
It’s now more of a volume game,
and MT2 is positioned today
amongst the top 20 players in the
industry. MT2’s growth in mobile
payment and mobile content is
aligned with the global growth as its
figures perfectly reflect it. We expect
this trend to continue with the same
shape and angle over the coming
years.
From another side, Banks and
traditional payments operators have
developed many innovative payment
facilities based on smartphones
and POS devices capabilities. We
can clearly state that such payment
solutions have not witnessed the
same success story as DOB.
I personally believe that such
services aiming to use mobile
devices to perform legacy payments
transactions, which still need a bank
account and/or a digital wallet and/
or and credit card or PayPal account,
have less chances of paying off than
DOB, which is also known as “Direct
Carrier Billing” (DCB). DOB will play
an essential role in the creation
of new markets as merchants has
started witnessing performed by
fresh buyers such as the low-end
class and/or underage consumers,
whom today and here onwards will
play a vital role in digital goods
consumption.
Besides, it is important to note
that DOB is not only practiced in
countries where the use of credit
cards is not yet popular; it is today
viewed as a vital tool in developed
countries such as Northern America
and many European countries
where it is experiencing a booming
growth rate of 20 to 40% during the
last couple of years according to
research.
Users have a tendency to opt for the
DOB option for recurrent payments
following their purchase of certain
digital goods; Consumers actually
perceive DOB as a safer and less
engaging payment method than
credit cards, as payments can be
interrupted easily and do not contain
any trapping commitment. As a
result, banks are becoming today
one of the major DOB competitors
and vice versa; they do not wish
Ourmainobjectiveis
notonlytolowerthe
company’sage,but
alsotocreatesynergy
inthebridgesthat
ourstaffisbuilding
together,startingfrom
ourofficesinLebanon,
KSA,toEmirates,Iraq,
BahrainandEgypt

3. 58INTERVIEWAPRIL2015
to lose their monopoly in terms of
payment methods (credit cards,
check, cash, etc.)
What are the main challenges of
implementing this technology in
the MENA region?
One of the main challenges is
the technical one; the operators’
infrastructure is developing very
slowly due to the factors mentioned
earlier that included the political-
security conditions, technological
limitations and so forth. It is indeed
a big challenge, due to which some
are not ready yet to integrate this
kind of payment facility as their
structures and internal procedures
do not enable them to comply, with
all requirements.
As an example, most of the
operators are not able to process
payment of merchant’s dues
within the very challenging delays
that are being imposed by the
major players like the OTTs. Other
technical challenges are related
to the performance of try and buy
transactions required by many major
merchants, where the operator will
have to freeze an amount of money
for a certain period of time, from
the credit of his subscriber, then
debit it or refund it according to
the merchant’s instruction. MT2
identified new challenges, and took
on the lead to help in overcoming
them and has succeeded to a
certain extend in fulfilling so far
many major gaps.
As a matter of fact and based on our
consistent technical behavior and
solid financial status, we have hence
succeeded at playing the role of the
intermediate that will fill the gaps in
DOB between the operator and the
merchant, making things happen.
As a result, MT2 consolidated its
positioning and was eligible and
recommended for partnership
handling DOB transactions related
to Facebook, Google play store,
Microsoft mobile store, Yahoo and
many other ones that shall soon be
revealed.
Another main challenge is related
to the regulators and governments.
Will they all allow the operators to
apply this DOB payment method?
Will they accept later on to extend it
for the purchase of physical goods?
In many countries in the MENA
region, this is still not yet defined or
not clear enough. In all cases this
will have a major impact on the next
enhancement!
What can you tell us about
MT2’s working environment and
spirit? How does this encourage
productivity in the company?
Our enterprise for the coming period
is to create a positive working
environment to develop influential
prominent talents.
We have created a funky space with
music, TV, and comfortable seating
named “The Hangout” which is
accessible to our team of 120 head
count. The brand name and design
were selected and created as the
result of internal competition to
which all the team has participated.
This space is intended to serve
as a chill-out place where people
would hangout during their breaks
over a meal or coffee and chitchat
about their interests and day-to-
day activities. We also intend to
make out of this place a room that
will serve for brainstorming and/
or a training venue. It is also being
used to hold our internal parties,
get-togethers, or even to welcome
outsiders/visitors who report to
our premises to attend to our
prearranged workshops… This space
is offering an optimal result which is
one of our major objectives.
We wish to keep our flat structure;
whilst preserving a fast decision
process as we follow trends, tastes
and markets’ needs in specific hasty
situations or occasions. We cope
with this through flexibility that will
grow the sense of responsibility in
our mature human resources as
we bet on those people who are a
majority at MT2.
• On the internal level, our main
objective is not only to lower the
company’s age, but also to create
synergy in the bridges that our staff
is building together starting from
our offices in Lebanon, KSA, to
Emirates, Iraq, Bahrain and Egypt.
The ultimate purpose is building
internal talents, and attracting new
potential ones, thus leading them to
become partners in our success.
What are your strategic plans for
the coming years?
With the shape that we have at
MT2, we can extend now our
technological support for startups,
since we deliver very honorable
levels of technology in the IT
industry. This has led us to achieve
big projects and be the number
one choice in the MENA region for
big companies such as Qualcomm,
Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.
In parallel we have invested in
internal data mining, annalistic
tools and recommendation engines,
which have secured for MT2 a
considerable stake in the Big Data
ecosystem in our region.
Accordingly, we intend to value
our extra miles in technology
as well as our marketing and
reach capabilities, in incubating/
accelerating a couple a new
startups, new success stories!
Weintendtovalue
ourextramilesin
technologyaswellas
ourmarketing,and
reachcapabilities
inincubatingand
acceleratingcouple
newstartups,new
successstories!