Indonesia - MasterCard to Enable Mobile Payments in Indonesia

MasterCard, a leading payment processing service, plans to develop new retail systems that can be accessed via mobile phones, the company’s representative for the Asia-Pacific region said last week.

“Indonesia would be one of the leading markets for mobile-enabled payment. It could be beyond the traditional plastic cards, so we could enable similar services for people without a credit card or debit card today through the mobile device,” said Phillip Yen, group head of emerging payments for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa at MasterCard Worldwide.

Indonesia’s market offers several potential advantages for MasterCard, he said. The company is interested in the country’s large number of mobile phone users, which now has 180 million users.

Such services are not new here. Indonesia’s biggest mobile-phone operator, Telkomsel, already has a similar service, called T-Cash.

Vadyo Munaan, vice president and senior country manager at MasterCard, said the service would help boost e-commerce in the country.

“MasterCard will make sure the Internet payment system is secure,” he said.

According to research from IT company Sharing Vision, online sales in Indonesia last year reached Rp 43 trillion ($4.9 billion). This year, the figure is expected to jump 28 percent to Rp 55 trillion, thanks to greater use of online payments.

Yen and Vadyo would not divulge the volume of MasterCard transactions in Indonesia.

Mobile subscriptions grew by 50 percent between 2003 and 2008. By the end of 2009, Indonesia’s mobile subscribers totaled 143.6 million and grew to around 180 million last year.

The positive growth trend is likely to continue at a 10 percent or more increase this year, and by 2013 Indonesia will become the fourth-largest mobile market in the world behind China, India and the United States.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/mastercard-to-enable-mobile-payments-in-indonesia/469116 by Shirley Christie on 2nd October 2011.

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