STA 290 Seminar: Qiuyan Xu

STA 290 Seminar Series

DATE:             Friday, May 26th 2017, 11:00am

LOCATION:    MSB 1147, Colloquium Room.

SPEAKER:     Qiuyan Xu, Cignifi Inc

TITLE:             “Mobile Wallet Usage Study: analyzing and predicting mobile wallet adoption and activity with the help of call detail records”

ABSTRACT:   This study is the result of a collaborative project between the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group; Airtel Uganda, Uganda’s second-largest mobile operator; and Cignifi, a big-data analytics company. The objective was to use predictive analytics to help Airtel identify customers most likely to become regular users of Airtel Money—a digital financial service offered by Airtel that allows customers to transfer money, pay bills, and engage in various other common financial transactions.

The project was based on an analysis of anonymized customer provided by Airtel Uganda. This data included customers’ detailed calling data (voice calls, text messages, data sessions), customer payment (or “recharge”) data for their mobile accounts, and mobile money transactions for all Airtel Money users. The data, which covered a six-month period from November 2014 to April 2015, did not include any personally identifying data (such as customer names, addresses, or voice or text content). Cignifi worked with IFC to define predictive models, identify the primary user groups, and set a project road map. Cignifi then proceeded to extract, process, and normalize the mobile data and develop analytics models that segmented Airtel customers into three primary groups:

1.     Highly Active Mobile Money Users

2.     Active Mobile Money Users

3.     Non-active Mobile Money Users

The study identified several key indicators that differentiate these three user groups, including mobile activity levels, monthly mobile spending, and user connectedness. These variables help predict the propensity of Airtel customers to use its Airtel Money service. These three indicators, specific business rules were derived. These rules will help focus Airtel’s future marketing efforts in order to reach customers who have the highest likelihood of becoming regular users of the Airtel Money digital wallet.