Paymo: Harnessing a global mobile payments market

In many countries outside the US, consumers do not have credit cards but rely instead on smart cards to swipe transactions directly through their banks.

Often, children too young for their own credit cards or bank accounts must rely on parents to complete their online transactions.

An estimated 75% of all online users around the globe lack credit cards - but 4 billion online users have a mobile phone.

For Paymo CEO Paul McGuire, that statistic sparked a light-bulb moment that illuminated a business plan he is hoping will revolutionise e-commerce payments.

McGuire and cofounder Margaret McKenzie invested their resources and experience in the payment and financial industries to launch Paymo, a global mobile payments network. McGuire handles the mobile and payments side of the business, while McKenzie deals with finance and banking matters.

Subscribers worldwide can pay their bills and buy from a growing list of merchants by sending a text message through their mobile phones. They can also click the Paymo icon on a website to add the purchased item to their phone bill.

This payment solution makes all mobile phone users potential customers - and that could be a strong incentive to merchants and service providers to join Paymo's partner and reseller programs. In fact, Paymo, which launched two years ago, has been attracting some serious attention.

"The company is picking and choosing the right opportunity," Ed Kountz, senior analyst for e-business and channel strategy at Forrester Research, told the E-Commerce Times.

However, "the challenge for Paymo is easier said than done. The mobile payment marketplace is a broad and complex ecosystem," he added.

Still, "as structural changes occur, Paymo is well positioned," said Kountz.

Read the full article here.