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Facebook payment app goes live in SA

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 23 Feb 2012

ZunguZ, a multi-tiered platform that integrates social networks, financial service providers and banking institutions to facilitate micro-payments, has gone live in SA.

Local tech entrepreneurs Robert Sussman and Lance Fanaroff, joint CEOs of ZunguZ, have introduced the first version of the platform (version 1.0) into the local market after ensuring compliance with beta testing.

The platform, which lets social network users exchange money with fellow users, was initially released to the public in the form of a soft rollout that allowed closed beta users to invite other users, but is now in full release mode.

The ZunguZ application facilitates money transfers between Facebook friends using the sender's existing bank account. The receiver can access the money by activating the ZunguZ application and then getting the cash from any of SA's big four banks, provided they have an account there.

“The service, which has just gone live, allows anyone on Facebook to send real money to any of their Facebook friends,” says Sussman. “All you need to do is be able to recognise your friend's face and you can transfer money to them with no transfer costs.”

He also notes that, in future, the service will allow recipients to collect their money at ATMs or at any point-of-sale machine.

Regarding security, Sussman says ZunguZ makes use of Thawte certification, SSL, HTTPS and second-factor authentication.

The user is able to activate his or her profile with ZunguZ without leaving Facebook, and is essentially given a Facebook bank account, he adds.

He points out that the platform will benefit South Africans by providing access to micro-payment money transfers as well as facilitating transactions for any online goods or services.

However, he notes that the second tier of the platform is currently being prepped for release and will include additional innovative features that will change the way people view payments.

He adds that ZunguZ does not compete with the likes of PayPal, which offers similar services.

“ZunguZ and Facebook do not have access to the money. This is all handled by the banks, together with their standard level of banking security, regulation and compliance.

“ZunguZ is therefore not a bank; does not touch the money; and there is no intention of it ever becoming a bank. We work with banks to bring their services to the social networks,” Sussman continues.

According to Sussman, ZunguZ has the potential to influence the purchasing decisions of more than 850 million users across the world.

South African users can activate the application via Facebook or by visiting the ZunguZ Web site.

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