Users to buy Google apps through M-Pesa
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Technology giant Google has enabled M-Pesa Express on the Google Play Store, allowing payments for apps via mobile money instead of credit cards.
The move, a first in the world, will now make it easier for people with access to M-Pesa to make purchases on Google.
Most smartphone owners in the region are reluctant to buy items online because they lack credit cards.
Data from the Central Bank of Kenya shows that credit card transactions stood at 130,372 as at December last year.
The M-Pesa Express payment option has been available to users since Monday and it makes Google Play among a few global e-commerce sites that have adapted to using mobile money.
The lack of a widely accessible alternative payment option has remained a barrier for the region’s citizens looking to buy goods and services from e-commerce platforms that only accept card payments.
DOCOMO Digital
While only about 6 per cent of applications on the Google Play Store are paid apps, the integration of M-Pesa is a milestone as it opens up to other global e-commerce firms like Amazon, eBay and Ali Express, which use the card online payment system.
The integration is powered through the firm’s digital’s mobile commerce enabling platform using Google Play’s payment API. The service will be available to more than 27 million M-Pesa customers in Kenya, and those in Uganda and Tanzania who have access to the M-Pesa service through an Android smartphone or tablet.
The solution combines Google Play with the M-Pesa purchase experience that Safaricom customers are used to when paying for goods and services.
“M-Pesa has successfully demonstrated how important it is to offer financial services to the unbanked and deliver financial inclusion. Carrier billing is very important in markets where credit card penetration is low. M-Pesa will play a critical role in the app ecosystem,” said Mahir Sahin, head of Android partnerships in Africa at Google.
The payment option was integrated into Google Play by DOCOMO Digital, a global mobile commerce enabler owned by Japan’s largest mobile operator. The London-based firm says it has connected to over 200 mobile network operators to more than 300 global and local payment methods.
Hiroyuki Sato, chief executive officer of DOCOMO Digital, said that one of the firm’s goals is to break down barriers and develop ways in which the 5 billion global adult population can engage with the digital ecosystem.
Convenience and value
Safaricom director of strategy Joseph Ogutu said that such partnerships have been instrumental in deepening the convenience and value of the M-Pesa brand to customers.
In the last three years, the regional largest communication firm has tried to make it easier for Kenyans to use M-Pesa for payments in the physical and virtual world.
Late last year, Safaricom launched the M-Pesa 1Tap service which uses Near-Field-Communication technology for easier payment.
Four years ago, Microsoft launched an almost similar service with Safaricom dubbed Mobile Operator Billing only that this used customers’ airtime to pay for the apps, since Safaricom had not granted access for third party operability on its M-Pesa platform.