British payments startup Powa Technologies, through its local joint venture, has entered into a ten-year strategic alliance with UnionPay Network Payments to bring its mobile payment app to the Chinese market.
Powa’s joint venture was formed to help retailers capture China’s huge Online to Offline (O2O) market, which is worth CNY304.9bn as of first half of 2015.
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Under the new partnership, UnionPay Network Payment’s mobile payment & point-of-sale solution will be integrated with Powa’s market mobile commerce platform, PowaTag, to create a co-branded version of the app called PowaTag UnionPay.
Powa’s smartphone app called PowaTag allows customers to instantly complete purchases with their smart phones.
The joint venture will first roll out in Guangdong Province to give the region’s 106 million-strong population the ability to transact with 400,000 merchants, before expanding to all six million merchants across the country.
By the end of 2016, PowaTag is expected to allow 50 million Chinese consumers transact with one million merchants. PowaTag, which has already attracted over 1,200 brands and retailers, will work across all sales channels from eCommerce to coupons and catalogues to in-store POS.
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By GlobalDataAvailable on both Android and iOS platforms, PowaTag does not depend on NFC-enabled POS systems and works with all China UnionPay credit or debit cards. It can also be used at any merchant who accepts China UnionPay cards.
Chairman of the joint venture Hu said: "Our platform is a project which operates together with UnionPay Network Payment. Our mobile internet products, O2O products and the POS system of China UnionPay connect together, speeding up integration and extending the capabilities of PowaTag.
"We have a target to reach at least 50m consumers regularly using the platform within one year from launch."
Powa Technologies founder, chairman and CEO Dan Wagner said: "This partnership with UnionPay Network Payment will allow PowaTag to take a leading position in the mobile commerce and O2O market in China."
Powa Technologies Asia Pacific CEO Alessandro Gadotti said: "With this alliance, PowaTag will further extend its presence and strength in Asia Pacific, the fastest growing region in the world for mobile adoption, eCommerce and retail in general."
