Indian consumers to gain access to mobile commerce
Prizm Payments, one of India’s fastest growing commerce companies, is looking for ways to make mobile commerce more accessible to a wider audience and not exclusive to those with NFC-enabled smart phones. Mobile commerce has been growing in popularity in the country, which boasts of more than 670 million mobile subscribers. Many of these consumers do not own an NFC-enabled mobile device, however, which has limited the impact of the growing mobile commerce industry. Prizm hopes to remedy this problem with a new payment service.
New payment service will bring mobile payments to feature phones
The company has announced the development of a new payment service that could bring mobile commerce to the majority of Indian consumers. The system, which is yet unnamed, will received a limited rollout this month. Approximately 200 merchants will participate in the initiative, granting them with hands-on experience with mobile commerce. The system is being designed to cater to merchants that have yet to embrace the concept of mobile commerce, thus allowing them to accept payments through the use of a mobile device.
Smart phone ownership low in India
Prizm has not yet released specific details concerning its upcoming mobile commerce system. The company has revealed that the system will focus primarily on feature phones rather than smart phones. Smart phones have been growing in popularity in India, but the availability of NFC-enabled mobile devices of this type is still low. Currently, smart phones account for only 5% of the mobile devices owned by Indian consumers, according to a CyberMedia Research study.
Prizm touts $50 million in transactions thus far in 2012
Prizm Payments has already processed more than $50 million in transaction this year, up from the $35 million in transactions it had facilitated in 2011. India is one of the largest mobile markets in the world, with millions of new mobile subscribers emerging every year. These consumers are growing more interested in the concept of mobile commerce, thus driving the production of new payment systems.
