MPayMe, Ltd., a Hong Kong-based mobile solutions specialist, and First Data Corporation, a global leader in electronic commerce and payment processing, today announced a strategic alliance to offer mobile payment solutions in key markets in Asia Pacific.
MPayMe and First Data will work exclusively together in Asia Pacific, and First Data will be the sole distributor and reseller of ZNAP across the region. MPayMe's ZNAP is a mobile business and payment solution that uses QR codes to offer a secure, flexible, convenient and consistent experience across commerce channels: bill payment, mobile, online, printed advertising and in-store.
This alliance will allow consumers to pay bills and buy goods without having to go to a kiosk or convenience store, or logon through a time-consuming online verification process. Consumers can make payments through a combination of credit/debit/prepaid, coupons and loyalty instruments all through one integrated application.
ZNAP provides merchants a set of applications that provide deeper customer insight and intimacy, lowers the cost of marketing and increases relevance to support new merchant revenue without adding significant costs or additional infrastructure. In order to use ZNAP, users do not have to upgrade their phones and merchants don't have to fund new terminals or deploy cards or near field communication readers.
"The combination of First Data's proven transaction processing solutions with MPayMe's innovative mobile business platform will position our combined offering as a convenient and seamless way to make payments for consumers and merchants in the Asia Pacific region," said Marc Mathenz, senior vice president and head of Asia Pacific at First Data.
Leveraging the growing demand for mobile business and mobile payment services in the region, under this relationship, First Data will utilize its sales force to bring this value-added solution as an enhanced market capability to its customers.
"Our collaboration with First Data is truly a milestone for MPayMe," said Alessandro Gadotti, group CEO of MPayMe, Ltd. "First Data has long been a global leader in payment processing and we are honoured to be their first mobile product alliance in the Asia Pacific region."
ZNAP is rolling out pilots across various regions beginning of July 2013 in UK, US, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Hong Kong and Japan and being widely available across the world by the beginning of 2014.