Banking on Africa where an estimated 38 million people use Facebook, according to Internet World Stats, ZunguZ has vowed to introduce new online payment system compatible with the social site to defeat world’s top online payment platforms.
Zunguz, a new online payment platform for receiving and transferring money on social network via credit card or PayPal without any transaction charges, bank account or an email address, says it’s targeting on the increasing number of Africans looking for online transactions.
Although the number represents only 6.2 percent of the global Facebook population, Zunguz founders say they do not expect major competition from mobile and online payments platforms including M-Pesa, Google Wallet, PayPal Wallet, Facebook Credits, and Square since none of the systems use social networking sites.
“We’ve been looking for a payment social-based platform and system for a decade and with Facebook taking off, we started to see the opportunity to place people at the centre of the payments ecosystem,” said Robert Sussman, ZunguZ co-founder.
As of last year December, Facebook had over 500 million users with over 250 million logging in every day, according to Digital Buzz statistics.
Sussman told HumanIPO the system allows transfer of funds between people linked on Facebook including friends, retailers, buyers, charity organisations or mainstream companies — with a Facebook profile.
According to Sussman, Facebook users in South Africaclaim the payment app simplifies money transfer process as it connects banking systems to Facebook’s social graph.
The app’s simplicity, Sussman says, is its other driving point as it solely requires the user to have a Facebook account, a mobile phone number and a PIN.
Users can in addition shop online with ZunguZ without having to withdraw the money.They also share information of what they purchased on social networks and can earn rewards from the retailers when one of their links buys a shared good.
Users can also configure the Z button on any site with a Facebook profile and use ZunguZ in any transaction including collection of funds for groups, sending money as a gift or donation to charities.
ZunguZ says it expects to make money through the successive sales.
ZunguZ underwent BETA testing successfully in December 2011 and presently, the company has developed and released version 1.3.5.1 to Facebook.
A number of social media and financial service institutions including Citibank in New York have also used the system. The service is currently extending to India, Mexico and in the US.
Sussman says ZunguZ has the potential to influence the purchasing decisions of over 850 million users across the world.
ZunguZ is an innovation of Robert Sussman and Lance Fanaroff, serial internet entrepreneurs with a budding South African technology firm integr8. ZunguZ has offices in Delaware USA and Palo Alto, Silicon Valley.
