The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives (Exponential Technology Series)

by Peter H. Diamandis

Eight months after launch, a million Kenyans were using M-Pesa. Today, it’s nearly the entire country. According to research done at MIT, with nothing more than access to basic banking services, M-Pesa lifted 2 percent of Kenya’s population—over two hundred thousand people—out of extreme poverty. Nor is it just Kenya. M-Pesa now provides banking services to over 30 million people in ten different countries. In places rife with corruption, it’s become a way for governments to protect against graft. In Afghanistan, it’s how they now pay the army. In India, it’s pensions. And it’s no longer just M-Pesa offering such services. In Bangladesh, bKash now serves over 23 million users; in China, Alipay serves just shy of a billion. And like Good Money, Alipay has become a force for social good. More than 500 million customers play “Ant Forest,” earning points for making environmentally friendly decisions in their daily lives. These points are then redeemed for real trees planted in the real world. It’s become something of a national obsession. To date, more than 1 million trees have been planted.