After having accounts frozen from the world’s leading card firms, MasterCard and Visa, Russia’s negotiations with Chinese card distributor and payment network have beared fruit with China UnionPay beginning to issue cards in Russia. Russian officials hope the new addition to the financial landscape will help with the development of a local payment scheme to prevent any freezing of accounts from occurring again.
Keeping with China, Ecommerce giant Amazon announced its plans on developing one of its massive fulfilment centers and warehouses in Shanghai’s Free Trade Zone (FTZ). The move will help the firm lower shipping and freight expenses putting it on par, price wise, with major Chinese player Alibaba.
In the cyptocurrency space, it seems eBay is finally making its long-awaited move into Bitcoin . According to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, eBay has been in talks with Bitcoin PSP Coinbase, among other firms, with regards to implementing the digital tender in its recently acquired mobile payment firm, Braintree.
China UnionPay Is Officially Launched in Russia
Following sanctions and frozen local accounts placed by Visa and MasterCard, China UnionPay will start offering card services in Russia.
Following rumors of an alleged local card and payment scheme, China UnionPay card will begin to trickle into the region, with an estimated 2 million cards to be issued within the next 3 years. The majority of Russia’s banks, VTB- Gazprombank, Promsvyazbank, Alfa Bank, MTS and Rosbank are already preparing their systems to support the new card type.
Visa and MasterCard were forced to freeze out Russian accounts in March 2014 following sanctions from the US government regarding Russia’s involvement in the Crimean crisis.
Started in 2002, China UnionPay quickly grew from a local payment option to international card firm boasting the most cards in circulation with a 34% global stake hold.
You can read the full article HERE.
eBay Looking to Add Bitcoin Support to Braintree
eBay’s payment subsidiary Braintree may soon begin supporting Bitcoin, according to a report on The Wall Street Journal.
There have been many rumors and news pieces regarding eBay’s or PayPal’s future involvement with digital currencies, with Bitcoin in particular. eBay’s marketplace already supports sales of digital currencies on it classified sections in the US and UK.
Choosing Braintree to implement the future support seems like a clever move from eBay, not attaching the controversial cryptocurrency to its main branding, or its long holding alternative payment method PayPal, a leading brand name in its own right.
According to WSJ’s report, the payment firm is in talks with Bitcoin processor, Coinbase, and other unnamed BTC service providers to add the new support.
You can read the full article HERE.
Yahoo! Re-launches Yahoo Stores for Small Merchants
US-based internet firm, Yahoo! has re-launched its Yahoo Stores Ecommerce platform, letting smaller merchants set up an online swiftly and easily.
The new Yahoo Stores is a revamped version of the same service offered since 1998. Ease of use and accessibility are the main traits of the revised platform. According to a blog post released by Yahoo, a merchant can set up a store in as little as 2 minutes.
The new platform brings with it a set of merchant plans, Starter, Standard and Professional. The pricing ranges from $10.95 a month for the Starter plan, $25.95 a month for the Standard plan, and $254.95 a month for the Professional plan. Differences between the plans range from amounts of monthly sales and added services. The breakdown of the pricing plan can be viewed here.
You can read the full article HERE.
Step Aside Alibaba? Amazon Is Entering the Chinese Market
US Ecommerce giant Amazon announced its plans on setting up shop in Alibaba’s backyard in Shanghai.
With Alibaba making moves into the US market, it would seem Amazon is doing the opposite. The firm is taking advantage of China’s 28 sq km free-trade zone, located in Shanghai. Plans include the building of an Amazon fulfillment center and warehouse, helping lower prices by lowering shipping costs and freight times. The free-trade zone was set up last year in 2013 to act as a test bed for economic reforms.
This is not Amazon’s first foray into the Chinese market. In 2004 the company acquired local Chinese shopping site Joyo.com. In 2007 the site was renamed Amazon.cn and acted as a Chinese version of Amazon’s popular platform.
You can read the full article HERE.
