French mobile operators Bouygues Telecom, Orange and SFR, and electronic payments offering provider Atos Origin have formed a new joint venture (JV) company to launch a payment offering called Buyster.
Backed by major online retailers in France, including Aquarelle, Brandalley, Darty and Rue du Commerce, the simple, fast and secure remote payment tool for fixed and mobile Internet purchases will be available in France from mid-2011.
The JV has been created against the background of the Single European Payment Area and, in particular, the Payment Services Directive (PSD), which provides the legal foundation for the creation of an EU-wide single market for payment.
The company, whose payment institution licence is still being requested from the Banque de France, aims to develop, operate and market the Buyster payment facility in France.
Expected to be offered through the JV’s mobile telephony partners, Buyster will be targeting the new payment offering at online merchants, capitalising on the strong market presence and extensive e-Commerce knowledge of partners such as Atos Worldline.
Buyster CEO Eric Gontier said they are setting out their ambition to become a key player in e-Commerce payment and the leading company in France for mCommerce; a market with strong potential.
"Over the next five years, we are counting on a share of the mCommerce market representing 10% of the turnover for eCommerce with an estimated amount of just over EUR 6 billion," Gontier said.
Buyster is expected to support mobile operators’ existing remote payment services by addressing the market for online-macro payments, complementing existing "kiosk" offers, which enable goods and digital services to be paid for by adding small amounts directly to the telecom bill.
The new payment facility is expected to represents a more secure, more practical payment solution for consumers adapted to new practices for fixed and mobile Internet, Atos said in press statement.
Registering to Buyster for free enables users’ bank cards to be linked to their cell phone number in a secure way, where the user will have to provide the cell phone number and confidential Buyster code for a transaction.
Buyster is expected to provide merchants with an improved conversion rate, reduced risk of fraud, potential for significant additional customers and sales, and the capability to benefit quickly from the mCommerce boom.
