PayPal in South Africa - FNB official storyshoutOut on 13/2/10 by EranEyal in peeps |
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WHAT??!! You don’t know what PayPal is? I don’t blame you, since the South African e-commerce environment has been hamstrung by not having this worldwide international standard stripped from us for so long. PayPal is a USA-based wallet system for making and receiving payments safely over the Internet. PayPal protects you most of all as at no time do you need to divulge any of your financial information. FANTASTIC! PayPal became especially famous on eBay and has now become *THE standard * in online payments. Today PayPal has more than 153 million accounts worldwide across 190 markets and 24 currencies. A few years ago due to some decisions made by the reserve bank as well as increased rate in fraud. But the genera consensus is that’s all a bit of “he said, she said”. A bit of online digging revealed the following article on one of South Africa’s best known blogs, mybroadband – It’s a common consensus that something does stink to high heaven here. Here is another article on MoneyWeb siting the exact legislation. Here is a good podcast covering the issue with JP van der Spuy from Mytrade.co.za
Th two major considerations that have really held back e-commerce in South Africa are the South African Postal Service (So bad it sent the world’s largest shopping portal Amazon.com) running for the purple mountains) coupled with the lack of PayPal. I know that the lift of this ridiculous restriction will completely change the way that companies like Springleap.com will do business not only in South Africa, but with the international Internet community that has become used to PayPal as their go-to payment method. Despite what you may have heard to date the deal has not yet been sealed, but yesterday Virginia Magapatona – the head of corporate communications at FNB – confirmed that FNB is indeed in discussions with PayPal and the South African Reserve Bank – but that’s where the information and communication trail ends. That’s the FNB official story. Te rest is hype and conjecture. And hope. |
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Other alternatives to PayPal While we in South Africa wait hopefully… our palms clasped in silent prayer… that in April FNB launches PayPal locally – the though rises? What alternatives are there? I firmly believe we will soon see PayPal in SA, whether by FNB efforts or not (hopefully there won’t be ridiculous fees or strings attached), but what alternatives are open to both African and South Africa entrepreneurs to the PayPal powerhouse? In my last update I discussed PayFast, but here is a link to some info about a few more :
shoutBack on 15/2/10 by EranEyal
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So let’s get started : What does PayFast support? PayFast offers buyers 1. the ability to shop online without disclosing financial information on the seller side : 1. There are no monthly fees All in all it’s pretty much what PayPal offer, or would offer South Africans if it were to launch, only that PayPal have a vast network of consumers already using it overseas and the ability to mobilize development much faster due to far greater resources. Personally I hope that they buy PayFast and turn it into a successful buy-out story. That in itself would be a big boost for local South African entrepreneur morale.
shoutBack on 14/2/10 by EranEyal
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One of the best alternatives to PayPal is PayFast which is a local attempt to emulate PayPal services locally by the brilliant entrepreneur Andy Higgins, also founder of BidorBuy – the local South African version of eBay – the famous world-leading online auction site. No big surprise there – it was a good and logical move. The big question is how will this service be impacted by the introduction of a much bigger system and corporation such as PayPal in South Africa. The bad news for PayFast is that the impact could and most probably will be devastating – unless there is a buy-out. I hope this is the case for the payfast team. PayPal has the resources to mobilize much faster and internal structures and agreements with institutions already in place all over the world, not to mention the power of the international consumer community.
shoutBack on 14/2/10 by EranEyal
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Sheesh @Antoine – know what you mean – it has been a serious uphill battle for us at Springleap.com. There are so many barriers of entry for South Africans wanting to use PayPal locally. While one is able to use PayPal to make payments going OUT of South Africa, the payments coming in are restricted. This has lead local entrepreneurs to have to run bank accounts and thus PayPal accounts overseas in locations such as Mauritius or the UK. So essentially we are taking our cash OUT of the country. Sucks for you Mr Reserve Banks Moneybags. On one hand, just being able to pay our international designers royalty payments and winnings via PayPal has really made our lives much easier. On the other hand, another barrier of entry for international customers to purchase from us has not helped at all. My further investigations have led me in the past to research other avenues – that is to say other payment options available to African and South African entrepreneurs and business people. I will be releasing a blog post soon on these options to help other inquiring minds.
shoutBack on 14/2/10 by EranEyal
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Hey Eran – I actually work for one of the larger e-commerce guys. The lack of PayPal really hampers our business every day – people really aren’t keen to part with their financial info online for fear of all sorts of fraud – especially phishing etc. Not to mention you are right – people overseas love and use PayPal every day and don’t use their credit cards like they used to. We really hope that the PayPal issues with the SARB gets resolved with FNB officially backing this issue. We are tired of one issue after in South Africa – now if only someone were to privatize the flipping useless Post office! – what a bunch of jerks.
shoutBack on 13/2/10 by Antoine
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The lowdown on PayPal coming to Springleap.com Many people have been asking about why we don’t have PayPal on Springleap and when that is going to change. This is a quick overview on the rumours circling the Internet industry in South Africa currently that FNB is officially bringing PayPal to South Africa. Is Springleap going to have PayPal? Read on…
shoutBack on 13/2/10 by EranEyal
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