GLOBE GCASH and BOKU Partner To Create The Blueprint For International Mobile Payments

February 16, 2010 – MANILA, PHILIPPINES AND SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Globe Telecom, a leading mobile operator in the Philippines through its wholly owned mobile commerce subsidiary G-Xchange Inc (GXI), is partnering with BOKU, Inc., a global leader in mobile payments, to expand the acceptance of the Globe GCASH service internationally, the companies announced today. The deal opens the BOKU mobile payment platform and growing international merchant community to Globe’s GCASH subscribers.



By partnering with BOKU, GCASH extends its reach outside the Philippines to a global community of more than 1,000 BOKU merchant partners and a mobile payments community that covers over 190 carriers worldwide, allowing its users to purchase virtual goods from any merchant in the Boku global merchant network.

“The Philippines is one of the richest markets in the world for mobile payments.” said Rizza Maniego-Eala, President of G- Exchange, Inc. “Since its inception in 2004, GCASH has been the widely used mobile payment method for online purchases in the Philippines. BOKU’s focus on mobile payments, specialized team, large merchant base, and tier one investors makes them the perfect partner in providing GCASH subscribers with a rich new experience in mobile commerce, that opens up the opportunity to explore and purchase virtual goods from the vast international market.”

“This partnership is a perfect meeting of two companies’ visions for the way to pay in the future” said Mark Britto, CEO of BOKU. “This is a great model for mobile payments, enabling carriers to reach global merchants through BOKU’s network, expanding capabilities for online and physical purchases, while driving increased carrier revenues and reducing subscriber churn.”

BOKU launched in June 2009 and has seen tremendous growth in the last year. Over this brief period the company has developed direct mobile payments service relationships with over 1,000 game and application developers, including almost all of the top applications for virtual goods and currencies purchased on Facebook. BOKU’s mobile payment service, Paymo, is enabled across 190 carriers worldwide in over 60 countries, and reaches a potential 1.8 billion customers.

Useful Links:

GCASH Website: http://www.globe.com.ph/gcash

BOKU Website: http://www.BOKU.com

Paymo Website: http://www.paymo.com

Watch a demo of BOKU in action: http://bit.ly/2CEUoE

BOKU blog: http://blog.BOKU.com/

Media Kit: http://www.BOKU.com/press/media/

Belgacom International Carrier Services and G-Xchange sign agreement for international remittances
Belgacom International Carrier Services (BICS), a leading global provider of voice, data and value added services and G-Xchange (GXI), a fully-owned mobile-commerce subsidiary of Philippines’ Globe Telecom, have signed an agreement to expand GXI’s existing number of remittance corridors, using BICS’ HomeSend Remittance Hub.

The HomeSend service, created in partnership with eServGlobal, provides a mobile-centric approach to international remittance which represents a significant new step in mobile payment. It allows subscribers of any mobile operator connected to HomeSend to transfer money electronically via a cellular phone to a GCASH subscriber.

This new cooperation, therefore, provides increased choice and convenience for Filipinos living or working overseas when sending money home to their families and friends in the Philippines.

The first interoperability tests between GCash, the fastest growing mobile wallet service in Asia, and HomeSend, BICS’ mobile centric hub for international remittances, have been successfully completed.

Three corridors will initially be launched in the coming weeks, namely between Belgium, UK and USA, and the Philippines, but will be extended in the near future towards other sending markets with large numbers of overseas Filipinos.

Frederic Schepens, EVP Strategic Business Development at Belgacom ICS says: “This agreement is the next big achievement in the international remittance market, opening up the industry beyond the limits of existing proprietary networks and enabling consumers to send or receive money securely, instantly and cost-effectively, with the convenience of doing so using their own mobile phones”.

Rizza Maniego-Eala, GXI President says: “The affiliation of GCASH with BICS’ HomeSend platform allows us to expand our mobile remittance hub connections. This partnership enables us to ride on the global mobile remittance expansion of BICS, providing more money transfer channels for Filipinos living or working abroad.”