Ripple is a cryptocurrency for banks and used primarily by banks. It's a good alternative for international money transfers as it is faster and requires smaller transaction fees.
(with WesternUnion it's ~10% if I'm not mistaken, with Ripple it's 1-2%).
But I would not consider it to be a good investment as the issuing company can place a huge number of coins into the market at once and thus drop the rate.