Cape Town - Mxit, Africa’s largest social network, has
integrated First National Bank’s eWallet service into Mxit Money, its mobile
commerce platform, to create FNB Moola+.
FNB Moola+ enables Mxit users to buy Moola, Mxit’s online
currency, at discounted rates. The result is 35% bonus Moola for every rand
spent compared to buying it via Premium Rated SMS.
This latest Mxit Money partnership gives Mxit’s 10 million
active South African users yet another banking service with which to transact
on the social network.
FNB eWallet allows any South African with a valid cell phone
to perform various financial transactions. Yolande van Wyk, CEO of FNB eWallet
Solutions said: “eWallet is more than just a money transfer solution and we are
continually extending the functionality. With the integration into Mxit we are
taking advantage of the micropayment potential of Mxit Moola.”
“Moola is a critical piece of this puzzle,” said Alan
Knott-Craig, CEO of Mxit. “As Mxit’s platform strategy matures, there will be
more opportunities to interact with applications, games and content and this
will be done using our online currency.”
“One of the greatest challenges to mobile commerce is
cost-effectively getting money into the system. Traditionally the only way to
get real money into our ecosystem was to use premium-rated SMS services. This
is an expensive solution and puts a lot of pressure on Mxit to provide fair
value to the user while still recouping its costs. The partnership with FNB
means that we can now offer our users even more value.”
“This will have a positive knock-on effect into our partner
network. The more Moola our users have to spend, the better for each developer
of the various games and services,” said Knott Craig.
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