Webmoney Prepaid Solutions, a case study in success

WebMoney Transfer has grown into much more than a local Russian payment solution. In the years they have been online, Webmoney has expanded into a global payment system transacting billions of Dollars, Euros & Rubles each year. Soon, it appears they may also offer a gold based Webmoney currency type, but no there is official comment on this yet. That is really exiting.

The technology and software (WM Keeper) behind Webmoney is so refined and tested that by accepting Webmoney Transfer payments, any account holder can create an almost seamless ‘automated’ Internet business. Buying, selling, paying suppliers and building long term relationships can all be accomplished through the Webmoney Transfer network. There is even a WM credit network for borrowing and lending.

I used to joke that if computers were like vending machines and had dollar bill slots on the front of each PC… funding a digital currency account would be painless! The movement of national currency into digital units is sometimes costly and time consuming. However, Webmoney Transfer, seems to have corrected this issue and brought their account funding mainstream.

At an estimated 120,000 locations across Russia, you will find electronic kiosks which allow anyone to pay cash and fund a Webmoney Transfer account. About half of these locations have people working in them and the rest are automated kiosks. Located in malls, cinemas, shops and even subway stations these machines only require cash & your WM-purse number. You can feed in your currency and instantly fund your Webmoney purse. This is an amazing operation. More than 25% of the total Webmoney account funding comes from these ‘cash-in’ kiosks. I’m also told that the largest kiosk operators have already started to expand into other ex-USSR republics, the Ukraine and even China. Kiosk funding is also less expensive than other methods.

Another popular way to fund a WM-purse, is by Webmoney prepaid card. There are three types of Webmoney prepaid funding cards. Each different type will add money to a separate WM currency purse. The different currencies now available on prepaid cards are WMZ (equivalent to USD) , WMR (equivalent to RUR) and WMU (equivalent to UAH).

In a recent interview with Peter Darakhvelidze of Webmoney Transfer, he credits some of their success to prepaid card sales, “…we have grown so fast mainly due to the easy availability of the cards all over our territories”.

One of the more interesting financial features of the WM prepaid cards is that they can also be used offline for direct payments at many participating merchants. In this case, Internet access is not even required to spend the value on a WM prepaid card. Mr. Darakhvelidze tells me, “By the way the cards can be used independently, without opening an account with WM - many merchants and services accept WM-cards pin-codes via phone IVR systems, thus people without any access to Internet at all can use WM as a payment means”.

The cards also work as a digital check for the Paymer service. Peter says, “Every prepaid card as well serves as a Paymer.com check , that is it can be split, merged or forwarded to other customers. Here we go - pure electronic money”

Paymers can be used by anyone in place of checks to pay bills, expenses or send money, once again this product takes the place of a regular checking account or bank draft.

Over the years, Webmoney Transfer has become somewhat integrated into Russian life. Locally, its not always necessary to use a bank for the payment of reoccurring monthly bills. Webmoney is widely accepted as payment by cell phone providers, all recognizable internet providers, pay TV and even satellite phones. With the recent Ukash ‘European’ partnership, Webmoney’s ‘integration’ may now also be spreading on a more global scale The ability to convert cash directly into digital money is certainly one of the major positive features of Webmoney Transfer.

I’m very impressed with Webmoney Transfer… can you imagine how convenient PayPal would be if you could load accounts through a local ‘cash-in’ kiosk?

Unfortunately, that will never happen. After reading this information, the drastic differences between US financial products and the rest of the world should be rather obvious.



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