VimpelCom, a major Russian mobile operator working under the Beeline brand, announced this week the creation of a new payment system named Ruru.
The Ruru payment system, now accessible via the euphoniously named website Ruru.ru and on mobile devices using an Android application, allows users to pay for mobile phone or Internet accounts, train tickets and airfare, domestic utilities, traffic fines and some other services. Ruru users are also able to pay installments on bank loans, fill e-currency wallets and make money transfers in partnership with market leader Unistream. In the “very near future,” reports VimpelCom, Ruru will support NFC-based payments.
Ruru’s commission rate varies from 0% to 5.95%, depending on the service.
Ruru accounts can be replenished from Beeline mobile accounts, but also from any bank account with a Visa or Mastercard card as well as accounts with WebMoney, a leading Russian e–currency format. The service, presented as universal, will soon offer additional replenishment options, says the company.
Beeline users could previously make use of Qiwi and Mobi.Dengi, two other payment systems, to make payments for third party services through their mobile account. Now Beeline account holders are being channeled to make such transactions exclusively with Ruru. The service is not restricted to Beeline subscribers, however.
Ruru is a joint venture between VimpelCom and Alfa-Bank, the latter holding a minority stake. Alfa-bank is a leading Russian bank whose shareholder Alfa Group also owns a 25% stake in VimpelCom.
“Several million dollars have been invested in Ruru,” said VimpelCom’s Viktor Markelov to Vedomosti.
MTS, MegaFon and Scartel in the running
MTS, another leading mobile operator, has two payment systems offering a similar range of payment possibilities but with more limited replenishment options than Ruru. The first one, Legkiy Platezh (‘Easy Payment’), was launched last year. Accessible via Internet and mobile devices, accounts on the system can be replenished using MTS mobile accounts or bank cards.
The second MTS service, launched last February, was specially designed for bank card holders. It is accessible only online.
MTS said to Vedomosti it is considering letting Legkiy Platezh users use Ruru and making Legkiy Platezh services open to Beeline users.
MegaFon, Russia’s third major mobile operator, is not considering the integration of its current payment service Mobilnye Platezhi (‘Mobile Payments’), which is restricted exclusively to MegaFon customers and can be replenished only from their mobile accounts. But MegaFon plans to launch a more ambitious payment system before the end of the year, reports Vedomosti.
Last fall, Scartel, the WiMAX operator working under the Yota brand, launched its own payment system called Dengi (‘Money’). Dengi – which is not restricted to Yota clients – can be used to pay for a very large range of services and goods, including from some e-commerce sites. Accounts can be replenished using bank cards or a number of electronic currencies.
While making online payments with bank cards enjoys little popularity in Russia, a variety of alternative payment options have appeared over the last ten years, from offline and online electronic terminals such as Qiwi and Cyberplat to electronic currencies such as Yandex.Dengi and Web Money.
Mobile payments have gained considerable traction since new legal parameters we laid down for the sector last year. Each month, VimpelCom processes 2 million transactions while MTS’s Legkiy Platezh has seen the number of users and the volume of transactions increase by 30%, reports Vedomosti.
According to a recent TNS survey, mobile wallet adoption has more than doubled in the past year across emerging markets, as they take advantage of the new opportunities it offers – a much higher take-up rate than in developed countries.
According to Electronic Money, an industry association founded in 2009, the Russian electronic payment market amounted to 70 billion rubles, or $2.5 billion, in 2010, and is expected to double this year.
Sources: Beeline, ComNews.ru, Vedomosti
