GCash Now Works Anywhere Thanks To BOKU Partnership With Globe Telecom

San Francisco-based BOKU Mobile, one of the big competitors in the 'pay-by-mobile' space, has announced a partnership with Globe Telecom, a leading Mobile Operator in the Philippines, to expand Globe's GCash (not to be confused with gWallet) virtual currency to be accepted at all BOKU Mobile compliment vendors. Users of GCash - an extremely popular virtual currency for the Phillipines - will now be able to use that currency to purchase virtual goods (and eventually real goods) across BOKU's network of merchants which currently "is enabled across 190 carriers worldwide in over 60 countries, and reaches a potential 1.8 billion customers" according to BOKU. At Globe's official GCash page, we can see a few examples of how GCash is a great match for BOKU. Their stated goal with GCash was to "transform a mobile phone into a wallet", and their launch in 2004 allowed users to make several types of payments with the GCash: Tuition, Microtransactions, Credit Card payments and more. By allowing their users to do a lot more with their GCash, Globe is able to capitalize on their users' transactions, taking P1.00 (about $0.20 USD) off of ever transaction. The essence of this move is that players of games like Mafia Wars will now have the ability to pay using their GCash wallets This transforms the experience for players in the Phillipines by dramatically reducing their barrier to payment. If they already have some GCash available, that new batch of Godfather points will now be just a few clicks away, with no real-money transactions necessary at the time of purchase. This is a really powerful model. BOKU is an extremely popular service for mobile payents on social games, and their presence in such a high percentage of Facebook games mean that their ability to serve a wide audience is guaranteed. They have been recently making big moves, recently securing $25 million in venture capital from DAG Ventures. BOKU also acquired Paymo, a small mobile payments company, last year and BOKU's payment system is now called Paymo, stemming from the acquisition. Paymo's site clearly lays out its offering in a 3 step format, and its quite compelling. At the point of purchase, you're asked to enter your mobile phone number, you receive a text asking that you confirm the charge, and you respond with a "Y" to accept it. Mobile payments certainly have a low-barrier to entry, and BOKU capitalizes on it.

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GCash Now Works Anywhere Thanks To BOKU Partnership With Globe Telecom

Neil Vidyarthi

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