Itz Cash and Oxigen

Posted on | September 2, 2005 |

Airtel and Reliance Infocomm, have tied up with Intrex, an Essel Group venture, for electronic distribution of prepaid and calling cards. Their customers can now recharge their prepaid account either by sending an SMS to 7575 or through Intrex’s Website. The required sum will be deducted from Itz Cash card and the mobile will be recharged.

Available in denominations ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 10,000, Itz card has an account number and password, which has to be used while making a transaction online or through SMS. No processing fee is involved.

Itz Cash is a multi-purpose pre-paid card that enables consumers to shop online, book railway tickets, buy Internet connection packages, play online games and pay utility bills. Many internet user wanting to conduct ecommerce do not own or use credit cards. Even those who have credit cards are generally reluctant to share their card details over the Internet for security reasons.

Launched in November 2003, Intrex achieved a turnover of Rs 225 crores in 2004-05 and posted a profit of Rs 70 lakhs during the period. ”We are looking at around Rs 300 crore turnover from Itz card alone this fiscal and are targeting a total turnover of Rs 450 crore,” Surya added.

Itz Cash has tied-up with Oxigen to make its refill coupons available at the 6000 outlets of Oxigen. The outlets are run by India Prepaid Services that provide utility refill coupons in electronic form.

It is a 50:50 joint venture between The Pre-Paid Company, South Africa and ex-chief of Motorola India, Pramod Saxena. Its retail partners include ICICI Bank, Hindustan Petroleum, Sify Iway, Fabmall.com and Andhra Bank.

India Prepaid Services is currently distributing prepaid mobile recharge coupons and STD/ISD calling cards, and Internet Packs etc. The Oxigen platform includes refill dispensation through point of sale credit card terminals, Internet-enabled PCs, ATMs and SMS.

Retailers benefit from this service as they don’t have to hold airtime stock in physical form of cards and a fully integrated virtual ordering and delivery system available 24/7. For mobile operators, it helps them track sales of their prepaid connections through data on customer buying patterns.

Can the Itz Cash + Oxigen combo bootstrap Micropayments / mCommerce in India? I can imagine a lot of possibilities here.

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