Singapore's IDA picks Paypal for payment processing platform

By Enterprise Innovation Editors | Jun 24, 2010

The Singapore Infocomm Development Authority has recently announced the selection of Paypal as the mobile payment processing platform it will use for its digital concierge program, which aims to encourage m-commerce in the city-state.

As part of the programme, PayPal’s mobile payment platform will help to accelerate the growth of the mobile commerce market in Singapore, making it easier for businesses and consumers to securely conduct transactions and easily make payments via mobile phones. At the same time, local developers and ICT solution providers will be able to quickly, simply and cost-effectively use PayPal’s checkout functionality in a wide range of mobile services and apps for IDA’s Digital Concierge.

“The Singapore government has shown remarkable foresight and vision in their efforts to create a rich and vibrant mobile ecosystem and PayPal is honored to be selected as the mobile remote payment platform for this initiative,” said Farhad Irani, Vice President of PayPal Asia Pacific. “This is the first time anywhere in the world where we are collaborating with a government agency on a mobile commerce platform. We look forward to showcasing our success in Singapore to other countries as m-commerce grows worldwide and people everywhere embrace the convenience of using their mobile phones for payment transactions on the go.”

“We are pleased to work with companies such as PayPal to provide consumers a wide variety of transactional and mobile commerce services,” said Mr Tan Eng Pheng, Senior Director, Industry Cluster Group, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. “The Digital Concierge Programme will accelerate the growth of innovative mobile services in Singapore, spur adoption by businesses and bring greater convenience to consumers.”

“With 138% mobile penetration rate and 8 out of every 10 phones bought being a smartphone, Singapore is an ideal market for our mobile payment platform to power hundreds of mobile services and apps over the next few years,” said Rahul Shinghal, Regional Head of Mobile Products, PayPal Asia Pacific. “Working with IDA, we look forward to helping businesses adopt m-commerce to reach more consumers and increase their sales, while enabling developers to more easily monetize their mobile services and apps on leading mobile OS platforms such as iPhone and Android.”