Mobile social network Mxit has integrated First National Bank’s eWallet into its mobile commerce platform, Mxit Money. The new service, called FNB Moola+, allows Mxit users to purchase the virtual currency for 35% less than it would cost if purchased using premium-rated SMS.
Until now, Mxit users have had to load Mxit moola by sending an SMS that then deducts funds from their airtime balances. Apart from saving users money — and denying mobile operators their cut — the deal with FNB greatly expands Mxit users’ choices when it comes to the types of transactions they can perform.
FNB eWallet Solutions CEO Yolande van Wyk says that by integrating the wallet into Mxit, the bank is taking advantage of the micropayment potential of moola.
According to Mxit CEO Alan Knott-Craig, the online currency is essential to its strategic aims, particularly as it is expected to increase in volume, and usefulness, as the Mxit platform matures.
“One of the greatest challenges to mobile commerce is cost effectively getting money into the system,” he says. “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.”
Knott-Craig says there are also positive spin-offs for Mxit partners. “The more moola our users have to spend, the better for each developer of the various games and services.”
Transactions using the e-wallet incur a fee of R2 each. In order to use the service, users need to add “fnbmoola” as a Mxit contact. They can then link their e-wallet to Mxit and can use it to load money from FNB cheque or savings accounts using mobile or online banking, FNB’s mobile application or FNB ATMs. — (c) 2012 NewsCentral Media