Micromax Partners TranServ, Visa to Bring Udio Wallet to Its Smartphones

Domestic handset maker Micromax will now integrate a new wallet offering, powered by Visa and TranServ, for its smartphone users as it looks to beef up its services business.

 

The Gurgaon-based firm, which had partnered TranServ in December last year, is relying heavily on payments as part of its overall service strategy.

“Payment is very critical to the overall service strategy for Micromax… Almost all the new smartphone products will have this wallet as natively integrated in them. Existing users of Micromax smartphones will also get this upgrade,” Micromax co-founder Vikas Jain told PTI.

He added the company has partnered Visa and TranServ to offer unique digital solutions specifically designed to meet the demands of the “mobile-first” Indian consumers.

“Visa brings together the merchant ecosystem and TranServ takes care of the technical aspect, while Micromax already has strong service ecosystem and user base in place to use this service,” he said.

Using the proposed payment solutions, Micromax users will be able to use mobile-based push payments using mVisa and make e-commerce payments on merchant and social media applications as well as interpersonal payments to personal contacts.

In the future, the companies will also look at launching mobile contactless payments in physical locations through NFC (near-field communications).

“The payment solutions will soon be available to Micromax smartphone users through the Udio app,” he said.

Udio is a digital wallet enabled by TranServ. It allows consumers to shop using a Visa card number linked to the underlying prepaid wallet, wherever Visa is accepted.

“Digital payments is clearly an important part of our digital experience and services strategy. We are looking to provide an all pervasive payments layer to our services ecosystem enabling digitalisation of the lifestyles of our consumers,” he said.

Chris Clark, Group Executive (Asia Pacific) at Visa, said mobile payments are part of the future of payments and their rapid adoption will be instrumental in helping India move towards a cashless society.

“With India being the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market, we have a significant opportunity to combine the power, reach and security of the Visa network, with the strengths of our partners Micromax and TranServ, to create payment solutions tailored to local market needs,” he added.

TranServ co-founder and CEO Anish Williams said the company is building solutions that will contribute towards a holistic and secure payments ecosystem.

 
Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

PayPal India Extends Buyer Protection to Intangibles for International Transactions

Digital payments company PayPal on Thursday announced improved Buyer Protection for Indian users, now extended to intangible items for international transactions. The extended buyer protection will help mitigate the fear of uncertain delivery or ‘Lost-O-Phobia’, the top fear in the minds of Indian consumers, PayPal said.

Together with its risk management and unauthorised transaction policy, the extended Buyer Protection will let shoppers purchase physical and virtual goods and services with the same level of confidence as in-store purchases, the company said. Eligible ‘intangibles’ include services and digital goods like travel tickets, digital music, digital books, digital games, and software downloads.

“PayPal’s Buyer Protection now includes almost all categories of good and services and guarantees secure online shopping, from checkout to delivery across borders for Indian buyers,” said Vikram Narayan, Managing Director & Country Manager, PayPal India.

PayPal said that the market for digital goods continues to grow – citing the growth of the music industry’s digital revenues globally to $6.85 billion (roughly Rs. 43,742 crores), surpassing physical format sales. A recent study predicts the Asian travel market will be worth US$155 billion (roughly Rs. 9,88,202 crores) by 2017, with currently 46 percent of travelers preferring to book hotels and flights online.

Following PayPal’s separation from e-commerce major eBay, PayPal said that it will partner with its founder’s competitors and is keen to expand in India.

PayPal has an active base of 169 million accounts, and processes 4 billion payments each year, 1 billion of which are made on mobile devices. The payments platform works in 203 markets, customers can withdraw funds to their bank accounts in 57 currencies. PayPal has a team of 1,300 in India, with offices in Chennai, Bengaluru, and Mumbai

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)