E-merchants selling their services and goods via Vkontakte (VK), the number one social network in Russia, can receive payments from VK users more easily, with the money being sent to administrators and editors of events, public pages and communities in messages.
In addition to stimulating social commerce, these features are presented a first step towards transforming public pages into crowdfunding platforms, a VK representative told Russian e-commerce blog Oborot.
Thus, musicians can raise funding to record an album, while homeowners can co-finance a parking for bicycles by the house. Startups can take advantage of this model, too.
Mastercard and Maestro card holders will pay no commission fee, while Visa users will be charged 1% or 40 rubles (approximately $0.7) at minimum. The maximum amount which can be transferred is 75,000 rubles, or $1,315 at the current exchange rate.
VK users have been able to send money in messages using their bank cards since this past autumn. The recipient decides on which account the money should go.
Source: Oborot
