Ayala’s Globe Telecom has just signed a partnership with Rocket Internet’s Lazada on a partnership to bring Globe GCASH to the e-Commerce space in South East Asia.
The Memorandum of Agreement (MoU) was signed by Globe Telecom President and CEO Ernest Cu and Lazada Founder and CEO Maximilian Bittner on April 22 in Seoul, South Korea.
In the coming months, it will pave the way for GCASH to be used as a mode of payment in Lazada’s eCommerce website through an open integrated mWallet platform.
“We are excited about this partnership with Lazada because of its customer traffic and the innovation it has done with online shopping. It is a great opportunity for us to leverage on this collaboration by bringing GCASH at the forefront of eCommerce. By increasing transactions through mWallet, we will once again expand the online ecosystem of Globe and provide our customers with a full digital lifestyle experience,” said Cu.
Through mWallet, Globe customers no longer need to own a credit card or even have a bank account to engage in eCommerce. Instead, they can turn their mobile phone into a virtual wallet to shop at the speed of a text message.
Lazada has become one of the top B2C eCommerce market places in the region with presence in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The eCommernce website in just merely three years. In the Philippines, Lazada started its oprations in May 2012.
Lazada has over 15,000 merchants, and 1.4 million active customers and is currently valued at US$1.2 billion with US$700 million of investment funding. It has an online footprint of approximately 4 million daily visits to its websites and the largest Facebook following in Southeast Asia with over 12 million fans.
In August 2014, PLDT, the rival telco of Globe invested €333 million for a 10 percent stake in Rocket Internet.