What online payment methods are gaining traction in the Middle East?

• 14 Answers

  Crunched 3

  My understanding is that credit cards are not very popular in the Middle East. I've also heard that pre-paid cards are being more embraced. What specific online payment methods are preferred right now? Are mobile phone payments the way of the future? Has anyone had specific experience setting up an e-commerce site for consumers in the Middle East? Thanks, ArabCrunch community!

  Tags: e-commerce online payments credit cards

  • Share
  • Buzz it
  • Bookmark (1)
  • 530 Views

• votes
• Oldest
• Newest

• Answers

• 

  Crunched 0

  I prefer using a prepaid Visa Card for my online purchases cause Visa is accepted almost everywhere unlike Cashu and Onecard ( i cld even enter my shop & ship address in New York as a billing address on an American website and it worked! :))  and it is still a prepaid card so its more secure (IMHO).However on my online store i'm still offering the COD option coz otherwise i won't sell

  by Rasha Mahmoud, Apr 14, 2010 8:46pm

• 

  Crunched 0

  In short as you have said mobile payment is the future, but unfortunately it's almost impossible to do it Saudi. My father for 2 years has worked on creating this service in Saudi and he has several operators and banks with him along with one of the biggest companies in the telecommunication services field and because of some political issues that I will not be able to share he was unable to get the final acknowledgement from SAMA (Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency) .

  don't give up on this but expect some illogical resistant because of internal political issues and SAMA will not make your life easy.

  by Haitham Ghazal, Apr 13, 2010 7:53am

• 

  Crunched 0

  http://www.bi-me.com/main.php?id=42801&t=1&c=35&cg=4&mset=1011

   

  Payments innovation in the Middle East

  by Omar Aloyoun, Apr 7, 2010 10:17pm

• 

  Crunched 0

  Amir, Apparently Urfilez is a US based company and is currently based between Bahrain and Dubai in MENA. I have not really tried their services because I'm not living in Bahrain at the moment. If I manage to get more information, I'll add it here and I will follow you on here.

   

  http://bit.ly/a90Jsd

  by Yacoub Al-Slaise, Apr 7, 2010 8:29am

• 

  Crunched 1

  see the interview of Iyad Kamal on http://arabcrunch.com/2010/04/aramex-strikes-an-e-commerce-deal-video-interview-with-iyad-kamal-coo-aramex.html

  he talks about Aramex new eCommerce Platform. Its regional and comprehensive.

  thanks

  by Bassel Ojjeh, Apr 6, 2010 8:37pm

• 

  Crunched 0

  Mohanad... thanks for the clarification! it seems like there are a bunch of limitations that are hindering companies like paypal from entering the market. This might be a good opportunity for someone in the MENA region who is able to convince banks or even mobile operators to partner with them on this.

  Yacoub... thanks for sharing urfilez, didn't know that existed. What countries can currently purchase through Zain's mobile credit? Is this service offered for both pre-paid and post-paid customers? Is there a dollar limitation on purchases? I know that Boku and Zong limit purchases to $9.99. Do you know who provides this service for Zain.. did they build it in house or did they license it of some other country?

  Thanks!

  by Amir Kabbara, Apr 6, 2010 5:39pm

• 

  Crunched 0

  As for mobile payments, you can buy and download songs through Zain phone credit at http://www.urfilez.com/   

  by Yacoub Al-Slaise, Apr 6, 2010 9:35am

• 

  Crunched 1

  Hi Amir 

  What I mean is that if you want to have an eWallet or mWallet license in Middle East then you have to do this in every single country …and yet most of the countries still they don’t have such license …. I believe only Jordan and UAE will give you the license …so the other option you have is to operate without a license just like what happened now for the prepaid payments in the region, and this will put big limitation on your business ….and that’s why you couldn’t target low cost airline, eGov,…. , and for the same reason big player they couldn’t operate officially from this region unless they have a partnership with banks …

  by Muhanad Ebwini, Apr 6, 2010 7:53am

• 

  Crunched 0

  Mohanad, can you elaborate on the statement you mentioned: "But till today there no one general payment in the region, and this is because there is no rules and regulations for such services and this precent big players like paypal to enter the region"? In your opinion, what rules need to be set in place for big players to move into the region? Kerry, you bring up great points. Do you think there is a potential for a Boku or Zong in the MENA region?

  by Amir Kabbara, Apr 6, 2010 7:15am

• 

  Crunched 0

  Thanks, everyone. These are really helpful answers. I recently read that Jordan has a 98% mobile phone penetration rate (and Saudi's rate was 177% in late 2009)--it really seems like there's great potential behind mobile phone payment technology. In the US, Zong and Boku/Paymo are both interesting options that have appeared on the radar, but mobile phone payments seem to trend toward micropayments/gaming, due to regulations through the phone carriers. Wondering why Google Checkout hasn't made more inroads on the international level, especially since being banned by Ebay/Paypal; if Google can play hardball with the Chinese government re: censorship, maybe they can encourage MENA governments to establish the regulatory framework needed for ecommerce success...

  by Kerry Abukhalaf, Apr 5, 2010 3:10pm

• 

  Crunched 3

  Dear Kerry

  In Middle East there are many payment gateways and each type of gateways focused on one or more category

  Prepaid cards, we have two major players in the market OneCard and Cashu and many other small brands …usually users use prepaid cards to pay for online games, online services, download websites, and couple of eCommerce and classifieds local websites …

  Credit Cards, usually mature users use the credit cards to pay Telco invoices,  eGovernment services, airline tickets and hotels, and mature eCommerce websites like Amazon, eBay….

  And for sure there is many initiatives in each countries owned by the governments for eGovernments and other local services like SADAD In KSA, eDirham in UAE …

   

  But till today there no one general payment in the region, and this is because there is no rules and regulations for such services and this prevent big players like paypal to enter the region       

  by Muhanad Ebwini, Apr 4, 2010 1:29pm

• 

  Crunched 1

  In Saudi Arabia you can use Sadad Payment System. It is established by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) to be the national Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP) service provider for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). read here for more info http://j.mp/cfbHuJ

  by Zamil A. Safwan, Apr 4, 2010 8:39am

• 

  Crunched 1

  so far, there is no generic service for online payments like paypal, but every coorporate/bank has its own tailored service for online payments that is built by certain software house, there are some software companies that have mobile phone payment systems but unfortunately its faced some obstacles during the approval by the banks and other government institutes since there are no laws for this yet

  by mohammad allouh, Apr 4, 2010 7:29am

• 

  Crunched 3

  I will be glad to answer your inquiry. There are several Payment gateways in the Middle East. In Jordan we have PAYNET that handles online payment solutions for merchants in Jordan, Palestine and Saudi Arabia. PAYNET is the official gateway of the Jordanian goernement. It handles Visa, Mastercard and soon Amex. In Qatar the gateway is owned by government. In UAE it is owned by National Bank of Abu Dhabi. Online payment is gaining momentun. In Jordan you can pay all your phone ane mobile bills online as well as dontae money for the King Hussien Cancer Center. There are more than 70 mercants in Jordan alone. Hope my answer will help

  by Ali Dahmash, Apr 4, 2010 7:28am

Add Your Answer!