Smart ties up with Zalora for e-payment platform

MANILA, Philippines - Leading mobile money service Smart e-Money Inc. (SMI), a unit of wireless giant Smart Communications Inc., has tied up with Zalora Philippines to launch a breakthrough electronic and mobile payments platform for the unbanked and uncarded.

SMI chief operating officer Benjie Fernandez said the MePay would now allow for secure and convenient online shopping with Zalora even for customers without a credit card.

Users of the payments platform that only requires any Philippine mobile number upon sign-up could top-up their accounts through direct transfers from Smart Money accounts or through any of the 30,000 Smart Money Padala centers nationwide.

Initially available in the Philippines, MePay would provide a robust and effective payments platform for emerging markets like the Philippines, especially those countries with low banking and credit card penetration.

 “The Philippines has one of the highest growth rates for e-Commerce in the Southeast Asian region but credit card ownership is still at just around four percent of the entire population—a long-time hurdle which MePay intends to address,” Fernandez said.

He explained that e-Commerce has not flourished in the Philippines as many Filipinos do not have a bank account or have yet to own a credit card.

“With MePay, we are expanding the space for e-Commerce around the world by enabling secure and convenient online payments through a service that’s easy to use and access. In the next few months, you will see more features added to MePay,” he added.

MePay could now be used with online lifestyle portal Zalora via www.zalora.com.ph as part of the series of collaborations with the Rocket Internet which is partly owned by Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT).

 Smart has paved the way for mobile money with the launch of Smart Money in December 2000, a first-in-the-world service that has made payments and remittances easier and hassle-free for consumers.

 “Today, with the launch of MePay, we are kicking it a notch higher and taking e-Commerce to the next level by opening up the platform to merchants, big or small, so they can easily accept electronic and mobile payments from their customers,” Fernandez said.

 The PLDT Group made its biggest foreign investment when it spent €333 million to acquire a 10 percent stake in Rocket Internet last Aug. 7. The stake of PLDT in Rocket Internet was diluted to 6.6 percent after the German firm went public but the value of the investments has gone up to €419 million.

 Orlando Vea, chief wireless adviser of Smart, earlier said PLDT and Rocket Internet are presently developing a “proof of concept” that integrates Smart Money’s payment platform in selected Rocket e-commerce businesses in the Philippines including Zalora, EasyTaxi, and foodpanda would be launched in the Philippines.

Rocket Internet’s most prominent brands include leading Southeast Asian e-Commerce businesses Zalora and Lazada, as well as fast growing brands with strong positions in their markets such as Dafiti, Linio, Jumia, Namshi, Lamoda, Jabong, Westwing, Home24 and HelloFresh, in Latin America, Africa, Middle East, Russia, India and Europe.

 Smart is looking at a 100 percent growth in the value of transactions handled by Smart eMoney that amounted to $4.5 billion in 2013.