SmartPay Jieyin Ltd. ("SmartPay"), a leading electronic payment services provider in China, today announced the launch of payment services in partnership with China Unicom for Shandong Province. These services include airline ticketing, lottery payment, utility bills and certain kinds of digital card retail.
SmartPay and Unicom also announced the launch of "Agent Toll Stations", beginning in Jinan, which will create a network of recharging and retail sales points for payment services using SmartPay's mobile payment technologies.
SmartPay's services in Shandong have been in their trial phase since June of 2005. These services include SMS, web and IVR based top-up services. The expansion of services and the branching out of network agents is critical for launching advanced offerings such as airline ticketing, the need for which SmartPay and Unicom believes will increase as the use of 3rd generation mobile networks becomes a reality.
In addition, "Agent Toll Stations" help expand mobile usage to areas without convenient transportation or extensive retailers. "Agent Toll Stations" allow agents to add money to any Unicom user's mobile phone using SmartPay's technology and bank relationships. "Agent Toll Stations" provide a rapid, infrastructure-light method for mobile carriers to rapidly deploy marketing channels and collection points.
About SmartPay
SmartPay provides remote payment services in China under the brand name "Jieyin". Chinese consumers and intermediaries utilize SmartPay Jieyin for the payment of mobile services, utilities, travel-related expenses and other expenditures. SmartPay continues to launch additional payment services under the "Jieyin" brand name. Investors in SmartPay include RRE Ventures ( http://www.rre.com ), Evolution Capital, Lunar Group Capital, Accel Partners and others.