Two Asia-based payment networks, NETS (Network for Electronic Transfers Singapore) and Hong Kong’s Universal Payment, are to enable 360 million customers of 21 Chinese banks, to shop at Singaporean e-tailers who currently accept eNets debit cards from participating banks. Of the 110 e-tailers in Singapore who accept eNets payments with debit cards, 12 are now serving the Chinese market, with four more following suit. The Chinese banks involved are China Merchants Bank, Bank of China, Citic Development Bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank, Fujian Industrial Bank and Pudong Development Bank.
Since 1985, NETS has provided a secure, online debit payment service to give shoppers in Singapore an alternative to credit cards when buying online. China and Singapore have a long trading history, and the extension of eNets payments to mainland China is an effort to deepen these links. NETS’ secure forex facility means that consumers in Singapore can use their own currency to buy from e-tailers in China, while shoppers in China are able to use renminbi at Singapore-based e-tailers. Consumers in China will be able to buy goods such as flowers, PC memory, music and games from merchants in Singapore.
eBay CEO, Meg Whitman, indicated that “China is becoming a leading player in global eCommerce” on a recent visit to the premises of EachNet, the eBay-owned network in China. Accepting online payments has always been a challenge for Chinese e-tailers, given the country’s cash-dominated economy, and may hit Yahoo’s impending launch of online auctions as a supplemental revenue stream to advertising. By 2005, China’s nascent eCommerce market could be worth USD 16 billion, according to eBay, but this is relatively small in comparison to the almost USD 100 billion achieved by US-based e-tailers in 2003.
Singapore Business Times