European market leader to showcase ground breaking on-the-go payments at Cartes conference in Hong Kong
mPowa will use its appearance at the Cartes secure connections exhibition and conference in Hong Kong to display its technology that enabled the company to sign deals with First National Bank in South Africa and Portugal Telecom.
The company recently announced that it is working with Portugal Telecom, one of Europe’s largest telecommunications companies. The breakthrough agreement, the first of its kind in Europe, will see Portugal Telecom employing the white label service offered by mPowa. The all-platform mobile payment deal anticipates business in other markets around the world, mainly Brazil and Africa, where Portugal Telecom is present.
The Asia Pacific area is expected to be a lucrative market for mPowa as it has one of the most advanced mobile infrastructures in the world. With Japan and South Korea leading the way in the adoption of mobile payments and China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines following closely behind. The mPowa mobile payment solution will provide mobile operators with a means to accentuate their commercial offerings with a new service enabling them to open up new sources of revenue. At the same time mPowa’s system is aimed at banks, enabling them to cut down on cash-handling and costs whilst being able to fully trust the highly secure PCI 1 system.
mPowa works by using a free mobile phone app and a reader which connects to a smartphone or mobile device via Bluetooth. It enables companies and individuals to accept card payments from their customers on the go in a quick and convenient way. The mobile app is free to download on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows and Blackberry devices and functions as the control centre that accepts the payment.
Dan Wagner, Chairman and CEO of mPowa, said, “We expect the Asian market to be one of the world’s fastest adopters of our innovative POS device for two significant reasons. The first major driver is the rapid adoption of mobile and wireless technologies – particularly in countries that are experiencing fast economic growth such as China, India and Vietnam. We expect our strongest demand to come from major banks and telecoms companies based in the region as they service their large customer bases across vast geographies through our white-label solution which has been designed specifically to facilitate this objective. The second is the availability and convenience of micro-finance that serves as a business network allowing the banks and telecoms companies to reach their customers in previously inaccessible geographies. Our mobile payments system will help to facilitate both the expansion of mCommerce and the development of businesses across the vast Asian continent.”
Dan continued by saying, “Our recent deal with Portugal Telecom further validates mPowa’s strategy for the Asia Pacific region of white-labelling its mobile technology to banks and telcos. This deal will help thousands of business users to leverage the multiple channels generating sales on their mobile devices. mPowa offers our partners a simple, robust and ubiquitous commerce infrastructure which is fully flexible and customisable, and with which they can start tapping into growing areas of new business.”
mPowa will be exhibiting at Cartes Asia in Hong Kong on 27-28 March and Cartes America in Las Vegas on 23-25 April as part of its global expansion. mPowa will also be speaking at the conference sharing innovation from projects in Europe, Africa and Latin America. mPowa will be available for press interviews and discussions with interested parties looking to implement mobile payment solutions into their businesses.
About mPowa (www.mpowa.com)
mPowa is a point of sale device that enables credit and debit card payments to be made on the go. It consists of a mobile phone app for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows or Blackberry devices, and a card reader. This can be either a magnetic stripe reader (MSR) which can be plugged into the phone’s headphone socket or a Chip & PIN device. It is the first service of its kind in the UK.
mPowa was created by multi award-winning serial entrepreneur Dan Wagner. Dan set up mPowa as the mobile off-shoot of his ecommerce and web publishing platform for small businesses called Powa Technologies. Previously, he established Venda – the world’s largest ‘on demand’ ecommerce provider – and Locayta – sophisticated search and profiling technology – both are now global leaders in their fields.