海地的移动化救赎

    海地是全世界最危险的国家之一，但是大卫•夏普却并不介意在这里做生意。早在90年代初期，他就曾作为一名美国海军陆战队员出现在“黑鹰坠落”时期的索马里，并曾在波斯尼亚激战正酣的时候被派驻到前南斯拉夫。

    今天，这位曾经的美国大兵已成长为一位40岁的企业高管，就职于海地的无线运营商Digicel Haiti公司。他现在可能正面临着一生之中最艰巨的挑战。2010年的海地大地震夺去了25万多人的性命，而现在，夏普需要说服连银行账户都没有的海地人民（其中有很多人还是文盲）去迎接一个崭新的数码时代，接受他的公司所提供的移动金融服务，而且这种服务甚至比北美和欧洲的同类服务还要更复杂、更先进。

    这个任务现在进行得怎么样了？夏普说：“我们一开始不太顺利，但是海地人很喜欢手机。”说这话的时候，夏普正坐在山顶的办公楼里，瘦削的身上宽松地罩着一件白色衬衫。从他的办公室看出去，可以俯视晨雾笼罩下的太子港。他补充说：“他们宁可少吃一顿饭，也要给Digicel的账户充值。”

    Digicel在海地市场上发现了一块大多数无线运营商根本不想碰的蛋糕，那就是移动钱包。从2006年以来，这家公司的TchoTcho移动钱包业务已经积累了70万名客户，而该公司网络的用户基数更是达到了450万人。夏普说：“我们刚到海地的时候，只有5%的海地人有手机，而今天这个数字已经达到75%左右。”夏普所在的公司是Digicel集团的一家子公司。Digicel集团的市值达25亿美元，老板是爱尔兰富豪丹尼斯•奥布莱恩。

    Digicel公司在海地的成功值得称道，但也并不出人意料，因为它的母公司Digicel集团很擅于在全球某些最危险的地区做生意。这个集团在加勒比、拉美、南太平洋等地的30多个国家都有业务，其中就包括萨尔瓦多和巴布亚新几内亚这样的国家。

    尽管如此，恐怕仍然很少有人能料到，像海地这样一个西半球最穷的国家、一个只有1,000万人口的蕞尔小国，尽管连年遭遇自然灾害、独裁专政和军事政变轮番蹂躏，竟然能让Digicel公司赚到这么多钱。海地的Digicel公司去年营收入达4.39亿美元，利润达到了惊人的8,600万美元。

    摩根大通（J.P. Morgan）行业分析师雅各布•斯坦菲尔德认为：“Digicel公司已经证明了它是一个强大、高效的运营商，有着很高的利润。他们经常走在潮流的前沿，但他们不会去追求没有利润的技术或设备。”

    Digicel公司的未来甚至比现在更加光明。不仅是因为夏普身为Tcho Tcho团队的领导制订了一个计划，到2014年3月要将Tcho Tcho的客户群扩展到200万人。实现这个目标的关键是要积极扩展它的代理网络，特别是在加油站和杂货店这些地方，因为用户可以在这里把Tcho Tcho当取款机一样使用。

    “我们是变革的一个重大的催化剂，”夏普说。他的娃娃脸似乎与他争强好胜的雄心壮志有些不符。“我们来到这里之前，海地人要么把所有的钱装在口袋里，要么藏在床垫底下。而现在他们第一次开始存钱了。”

    包括美国国际开发署（USAID）在内的许多观察者都认为，Digicel的移动钱包是一项改变了行业面貌的服务，正在加速这个国家的经济发展，同时帮助它转型，而这个国家实在太需要一些好消息了。

    David Sharpe doesn't mind doing business in Haiti despite its reputation for being one of the world's most dangerous countries. Back in the early 1990s, the ex-U.S. Marine was in Somalia during Black Hawk Down and the former Yugoslavia during some of the bloodiest fighting in Bosnia.

    But now Sharpe, a 40-year-old executive with wireless provider Digicel Haiti, faces perhaps the toughest challenge of his life. As the country picks itself up from the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people, he needs to convince its unbanked masses, many of whom are illiterate, to embrace the digital age with mobile financial services more sophisticated and advanced than anything available in North America or Europe.

    How is the mission going so far? "We had a bumpy start, but Haitians love their mobile phones," says Sharpe, sitting in his hilltop office overlooking the late-morning haze blanketing the capital Port-au-Prince. "They may not buy a meal, but they will top up their Digicel account," adds Sharpe, whose crisp white shirt hangs loosely over his lanky frame.

    Digicel has found the pulse of a market most wireless carriers would not touch with a 20-foot barge pole, accumulating 700,000 customers for its TchoTcho mobile wallet and a subscriber base of 4.5 million since 2006. "When we first arrived, only 5% of Haitians owned a mobile phone, today that number is more like 75%," says Sharpe, whose company is a subsidiary of the $2.5-billion Digicel Group, owned by Irish billionaire Denis O'Brien.

    Digicel's achievements in Haiti are commendable, but not exactly surprising given the parent company specializes in doing business in some of the most difficult and hazardous corners of the world. It has operations in more than 30 countries across the Caribbean, Latin America, and the South Pacific, including El Salvador and Papua New Guinea.

    Even so, few would have guessed that the poorest country of the Western Hemisphere -- a nation of 10 million that for decades has toiled under an oppressive combination of natural disasters, dictators, and military coups -- could end up being so lucrative for Digicel. The Haitian operation made an impressive $86-million profit on revenue of $439 million in 2012.

    "Digicel has proven itself to be a strong and efficient operator with high margins," says industry analyst Jacob Steinfeld with J.P. Morgan in New York. "They are usually at the forefront in terms of trends but will not pursue technologies or equipment that don't make sense financially."”

    The future looks even brighter, not least because Sharpe, head of the TchoTcho team, wants to more than double his customer base to 2 million by March 2014. The key to achieving that goal is an aggressive build-out of his agent network, mainly gas stations and grocery stores, which TchoTcho subscribers can use like bank machines.

    "We're a tremendous catalyst for change," says Sharpe, whose boyish face belies a super-competitive streak. "Before we came along, Haitians had all this money in their pockets and under their mattresses. They lived day to day. Now they're saving for the first time."

    Many observers, including the Washington-based U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), view Digicel's mobile wallet as a game-changer that is dramatically accelerating economic development and helping transform a country that desperately needs some good news.