GlobalCollect, the world's most knowledgeable payments service provider, today announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with QIWI plc, a leading provider of next generation payment services in Russia and the CIS.
As part of the deal, GlobalCollect has integrated QIWI into its portfolio of payment products.
"Russia and the CIS countries are hugely strategic markets for many of our clients. In order to successfully tap into these rapidly expanding eCommerce markets, merchants must understand and leverage the region's unique payments preferences and infrastructure," said David Jimenez, Chief Revenue Officer at GlobalCollect. "With QIWI, we further expand our payment product coverage in Russia and can connect our clients to one of the region's most popular and fast growing payment products, allowing them to accept payments from millions of new customers."
By adding QIWI to their payment mix, GlobalCollect merchants gain access to over 70 million consumers in Russia and the CIS. The company is already seeing strong demand across all industries, with gaming and digital media companies among the first to start accepting QIWI payments through GlobalCollect.
"At QIWI, we enable our customers to engage with the best selection of merchants and providers available. GlobalCollect represents some of the world's largest eCommerce companies, so this partnership is a natural fit that creates a win for both our and GlobalCollect's customers," said Alexey Kolychev, Managing Director at QIWI plc. "We're excited to see so many major companies immediately activating QIWI on GlobalCollect's platform. GlobalCollect's full service model connects very well with our infrastructure to remove complexity for merchants."
Russia's online population in particular is rapidly growing. According to the Association of Internet Commerce Companies (AKIT), there were 60 million internet users in Russia in 2013, with 50% making purchases online. eMarketer estimates the number of internet users in Russia to grow to 86.3 million by 2016 - the largest online community in Europe. The Russian eCommerce market is forecasted to grow at 30% CAGR until 2018 (AKIT). QIWI is extremely well-ppositioned in this fast growing market, with over 100.000 self-service kiosks and more than 15,5 million users of its virtual wallet service.