XOX, MASTERCARD IN TALKS ON E-WALLET?
Companies expected to sign agreement this month for roll-out of service in April
MOBILE service provider XOX Bhd is believed to be in talks with Mastercard Inc for the roll-out of its ewallet service starting next month.
Sources close to XOX said the company might sign an agreement with Mastercard as early as this month.
Mastercard is a global payments provider. It facilitates the processing of payment transactions, including authorisation, clearing and settlement.
The United States-based firm is expanding to support mobile network operators (MNOs) in effort to evolve their operations and become a more complete digital player.
A source said that XOX was banking on the e-wallet service to expand its earnings and aimed to work with Mastercard for the business expansion.
e-Wallet (also known as digital wallet) allows users to make electronic transactions. The transactions are such as to reload credit, purchase Season Pass packages, Happy Hour and Season Pass X promos.
Users can also deposit cash into e-Wallet and top-up using the cash saved in e-Wallet.
For the six months ended December 31 2017, XOX recorded a net profit of RM2.67 million on a revenue of RM95.81 million.
XOX chief executive officer Ng Kok Heng had said previously that the company aimed to penetrate the Asean region for growth.
He said the company expected to grow an additional one million mobile network subscribers this year.
Last November, XOX subsidiary, XOX Media, jointly launched NU Mobile, a SIM-less mobile payment application with PT Inovasi Telematika Nusantara and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in Jakarta, Indonesia.
NU Mobile application was developed on XOX’s proprietary Voopee SIM-less mobile solution in collaboration with Inovasi Telematika Nusantara and NU, the largest independent Islamic organisation in the world.
The mobile application is aimed at providing a secure, convenient and fast option to serve more Indonesians, especially the unbanked population.
It was reported that only 36 per cent of Indonesia’s population of 261 million are connected to formal financial institutions.
There are an estimated 110 million unbanked citizens.
The Indonesian mobile payment market is expected to record a compound annual growth rate of 72.3 per cent during 2017-2021 to reach US$14 billion (RM54.88 billion) in transaction value terms by 2021, increasing from US$1.6 billion last year.