Boku launches the world’s largest mobile payments network

By Gaia Lamperti

Boku, the leading UK-based FinTech powering mobile payments, today announced the launch of M1ST (Mobile First), the world’s largest mobile payments network, featuring over 330 mobile payment methods, including mobile wallets, direct carrier billing, and real-time payments schemes.

The payment network will reach 5.7 billion mobile payment accounts in 90 countries and is designed to eliminate the complexity of mobile payment acceptance so that merchants can meet the demands for quicker, lower-cost payment options. Through a single API integration, M1ST will allow merchants to accept mobile wallets, real-time payments, and carrier billing seamlessly and securely.

With 45% of global consumers using mobile payment methods to buy goods online (according to the World Bank) and nearly 60% projected to be using mobile wallets by 2025, the future of commerce is mobile-first. Since 2008, Boku’s technology platform already helps global merchants to attract, convert, and retain customers using mobile payments. The new product will focus on building world-class user experiences that drive long-term, valuable relationships with their customers.

“We’ve seen a fundamental shift of consumer purchasing power from west to east, from established to emerging markets, and from credit cards to mobile payments. Today, we’re launching the M1ST Network to enable global merchants to acquire, monetise, and retain mobile-first consumers,” said Jon Prideaux, CEO of Boku.

Consumers across Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East are bypassing credit cards, and moving from cash to mobile payments like GoPay, Paga, PicPay and UPI. Yet, mobile payment acceptance for global merchants is highly complex, especially due to the extreme fragmentation of mobile payment methods. Boku’s M1ST will be introduced to solve a number of these challenges, including:

• Standardization – M1ST removes the complexity of disparate technical, legal, and contractual considerations, simplifying 330+ payment methods into a single, scheme-like network.
• Digitally Native – M1ST enabled payments are built to support the 0-tap subscriptions and 1-tap checkout transactions that enable new, online business models.
• Future-Proofed – By 2025, nearly 60% of consumers globally are projected to be using mobile wallets; the M1ST Network follows market demand to maximize merchant acceptance.
• Global Settlement – M1ST delivers merchants a single, global settlement, eliminating the complexity of local taxes, foreign exchange, and cash repatriation.
• Local Legal Infrastructure – Through payment licenses and local entities, M1ST is capable of accepting regulated payments in nearly 50 countries.

Prideaux added: “For merchants to capitalize on the massive potential of mobile-first consumers, they need to accept the payment methods they have and prefer, which are increasingly behind glass screens, not rectangular pieces of plastic. We’ve spent the past decade delivering new customers to our merchants through mobile payments. Now that mobile payments have overtaken credit cards globally, merchant acceptance has moved from a competitive advantage to a strategic imperative.”

Boku recorded over a billion verified transactions across its platform in 2020, contributing more than $8 billion to the digital economy. Among its customers, the platform boasts Apple, DAZN, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, PayPal, Sony, Spotify and Tencent.