Vodacom South Africa has partnered with China’s leading fintech Alipay to develop a super app for the South African market. Customers and merchants will transact on one affordable platform, operated by Vodacom Financial Services, with Alipay as the technology provider.
In a statement, Vodacom says that the new partnership will leverage on Alipay’s track record as a leading digital lifestyle services platform to develop a marketplace for goods and services tailored for South African consumers. As of June 30, 2019, Alipay served more than 1.2 billion users worldwide together with its global e-wallet partners
The app will enable South African consumers and merchants to send money to family, pay utility bills, shop online, check on the business point of sale transactions, and order new stock. The app will utilize Vodacom’s digital payment ecosystem to serve both the banked and unbanked parts of the population.
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Mariam Cassim, CEO Vodacom Financial and Digital Services, said
The new technology will also allow access to digital lifestyle solutions such as streaming music, playing games, and watching videos, e-news, cab-hailing, and much more. The application is completely customizable to meet the specific financial and transacting needs of the user.
Mariam Cassim, CEO Vodacom Financial and Digital Services
Consumers can keep track of the monthly spend with each merchant they transact with every day. She added that the superapp will support SME businesses with features such as bespoke, programmatic advertising as well as real-time and direct marketing solutions – all zero-rated for customer consumption.
Vodacom said that it will soon embark on a drive to recruit and develop the best skills required to bring this application to life early next year.
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