PayMaya partners with Golden Arches

PLDT Inc. unit PayMaya has partnered with the local franchisee of fast food giant McDonald’s in a bid to expand its cashless payments reach.

PayMaya and Golden Arches Development Corporation (GADC), which holds the exclusive franchise of McDonald’s in the country, announced the partnership on Friday.

The tie-up allows McDonald’s stores to accept card payments from Mastercard and Visa card, including PayMaya Visa cards and Smart Mastercard, in collaboration with PayMaya.

PayMaya said 42 McDonald’s stores nationwide have already begun accepting card payments.

PLDT Chairman Manny Pangilinan, who led the launch, said that the partnership with the quick-service restaurant would soon lead to more deals with other players in the industry as the group continues to support its vision for a cashless society.

“We’re starting with McDonald’s today, but we envision a future where most of our transactions will be carried out with the help of a PayMaya account,” he said.

Kenneth Yang, McDonald’s Philippines president and chief executive officer, added the tie-up would improve customer experience as they now have “a cashless payment option to make ordering their favorite McDonald’s meals more convenient.”

PayMaya’s quick response (QR) payment system will be available at the McCafe BGC Arts Center and McCafe Tagaytay Calamba branches “in a few weeks,” its president and CEO Orlando Vea said in the same media launch.

PayMaya teamed up with retail leaders to make its QR system available to Smart Stores, key merchants such as The SM Store; Robinsons Supermarket, and Robinsons Department Store, among others.

Earlier, Paolo Azzola, PayMaya chief operating officer and managing director, told reporters that Voyager Innovations Inc., operator of PayMaya, now has 8 million PayMaya and Smart Money users and that they plan to grow their user base to 30 million by 2020.

PayMaya is the digital payment services unit of Voyager, the digital innovations arm of PLDT Inc.

Meanwhile, GADC is a subsidiary of Andrew Tan’s Alliance Global Group, Inc. (AGI).