Kiva is one of the best ideas I have ever heard about on the Internet. It has been named by the New York Times Magazine as one of the top ideas in 2006
What is Kiva?
Kiva is a non-profit organization and Internet start-up that has become the world's first person-to-person micro-credit lending marketplace for the poor.
Kiva uses Internet web 2.0 technologies and a worldwide network of micro-finance institutions all around the world to enable individuals in rich countries to lend as little as $25 to help fund small businesses run by low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world.
How does Kiva work?
Loans made on Kiva provide 0% interest to lenders. Kiva entrepreneurs in the third world usually borrow relatively small loans (usually around 2000 USD or less). These borrowers are charged some interest by the respective micro-finance institution handling the individual loan (an average interest rate of about 19 percent, lower than the 35 percent worldwide average for micro-finance loans). Kiva borrowers have a historical repayment rate of almost 100%.
Kiva and Web 2.0
Kiva has the usual 'web 2.0' stuff like RSS feeds, journals with comments (like blogs), face wall that links to user profiles, badges for websites, easy Web payments (using credit card, Paypal), recommendations, and more.
Business Model
Self-sustainability is critical to Kiva. To this end, Kiva supports itself principally :
Kiva expects to be self sustainable in 2008.
Conclusion
Kiva model is quite a breakthrough in Web 2.0.Consider 100% of your money going directly to those in need and you have almost 100 % chance of geting your money back.
By the way, Kiva is the Swahili word for "agreement" or "unity".
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