Trunkbow International Holdings Limited, a provider of Mobile Payment Solutions (“MPS”) and Mobile Value Added Solutions (“MVAS”) in China, today announced that it has entered into a partnership agreement with China UnionPay (“UnionPay”), China’s leading bankcard association, for the development and marketing of the Trunkbow UnionPay mobile payment applet.

Under the agreement, Trunkbow is developing a UnionPay-certified plug-in applet that will enable m-commerce transactions through UnionPay’s clearing system. The companies expect to launch this applet to merchants in January 2012.

In addition to development and aftermarket support of the applet, the companies will work together to develop and expand the Trunkbow UnionPay merchant network, and market the m-commerce solution to China’s nearly 1 billion mobile phone users.

Trunkbow will receive a percentage of the gross value of each transaction processed through the applet, as negotiated with individual merchants. The Company expects its per-transaction fees to range from 0.4% to 2.4%, depending on the merchant and type of transaction.

“This partnership will provide us with meaningful financial contributions through revenue sharing with both China UnionPay and individual merchants. It represents an important strategic milestone for our MPS business, as it marks the implementation of our MPS technology into a nationwide inter-bank transaction clearing system that processed RMB 11.2 trillion in transactions in 2010,” said Mr. Qiang Li, CEO of Trunkbow. “Smart phone adoption and mobile application use are growing rapidly in China, with tech-savvy consumers migrating to m-commerce in growing numbers. The Trunkbow UnionPay applet can be integrated into an individual mobile application or app store, and provides a new, extremely convenient payment option for consumers. With a defensible first mover advantage and strong partnerships with China’s three wireless carriers and leading clearing house, we are well positioned to capture share in this emerging market.”

Mr. Li added, “The nationwide roll-out of the Trunkbow UnionPay mobile payment applet greatly enhances our merchant acquisition capabilities. Our POS-based MPS platform is active in 24 provinces through all three wireless carriers, and the Bestpay mobile application is being rolled out to China Telecom’s 28 million 3G smart phone users. The addition of the UnionPay mobile applet and rapidly growing number of m-commerce end-users make the benefits of MPS technology, and our solution in particular, increasingly attractive to merchants as an alternative to card-based transactions. Having taken this important step to expand our MPS footprint, we plan to aggressively ramp our merchant acquisition efforts through the establishment of partnerships with online and offline retailers, service providers and other merchants. We believe that this strategy will help Trunkbow build a solid recurring revenue base, resulting in greater stability and visibility in our MPS business, while giving us access to a virtually limitless market.”

The Trunkbow UnionPay mobile payment applet can be incorporated into any existing mobile application to facilitate simple, secure online payments from a user’s mobile phone. Representative transactions include the payment of utility and other bills, purchase of lottery, movie and event tickets, online gaming credits, e-books as well as physical goods from online and brick-and-mortar merchants utilizing the applet.

Source: PR Newswire