If you’re a professional affiliate, buying traffic, getting paid, then turning around and buying traffic right back up again is your modus operandi. The ability to turn around and re-buy traffic as quickly as possible is the part where revenue generation can take a big hit. The challenge for affiliates is getting liquid access to their earnings. Easier said than done though.
It’s this particular problem that Payoneer, whose Master Card debit card solution we’ve covered in the past, has made into its house specialty and why it’s become a popular choice for international affiliates. → Read More
The irony is that many get pretty far down the development path before realizing that adding billing infrastructure to their offering may not be as simple as integrating with PayPal’s API or some other payment processor.
Choosing the right processor, and many times, processors, from a confusing multi-layered vendor ecosystem can be tricky. Poor decision-making when it comes to issues such as terms of pricing, business fit, or processing capability, can each be a deep gash in any startup’s soft underbelly.
Payments-R-Us is trying to alleviate the confusion by providing a payments vendor-to-merchant wizard that makes it a snap to choose the right payment processor. The wizard is supplemented with some in-depth content aimed at educating merchants to better grasp the ins and outs of the terms and options offered by vendors so they can better negotiate agreements. → Read More
Israel seems to be the country with the single biggest foreign contingent at TC50 with no less than 6 of the 50 companies presenting on stage. Some more Israeli startups can be found in the demo pit, the exhibition space and just walking around the venue floor shopping for investors, customers and partners.
Here is a round-up of the 6 Israeli companies that presented on stage: → Read More
When Paypal competitor Payoneer has raised $8 million in a Series B financing from Greylock and Carmel ventures. That brings the total the company has raised to $14 million. (Greylock led the Series A). Payoneer’s advantage over Paypal in the micro-payments arena is that it makes international payments easier by not requiring a bank account for verification. Websites like iStockPhoto or Metacafe can issue pre-paid Mastercard debit cards to their customers and transfer funds electronically to the credit card account. The account can be used as a regular electronic payment transfer system as well similar to Paypal. The Israeli startup (whose headquarters are in New York City), will use the new cash to fund expansion into more markets and invest in technologies to detect and prevent fraud and abuse by criminals and terrorists. If you are going to go after a niche in the payments industry, international payments is about as big a niche as you can get. But it can also be a dangerous game in the post-9/11 world. CrunchBase Information Payoneer Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
When I last covered payment service provider Payoneer, the company had announced the collection of $3 million more in funding and the addition of iStockPhoto to its client roster. Today, the company is announcing the initial rollout of “Payoneer Virtual US Account,” a new offering that simplifies payment cash out for international payees. The new offering allows Payoneer card holders that live outside the US to receive direct Automated Clearing House (ACH) deposits/payments without the necessity of actually having a US bank account. Here’s how it works: Payoneer maintains a bulk of sub-accounts under its main account, which is held in an American bank. When an ACH transfer is initiated, each of these sub-accounts is referenced using its own routing and account numbers. When the funds are credited to one of these sub-accounts, Payoneer loads the funds to the associated card. Contrary to their name, these accounts are not virtual at all. Payoneer’s thinking here is to call them virtual accounts because they only serve as channels for loading money onto their cards. The accounts cannot be used for wire transfers, they don’t bear interest, etc. I may be splitting hairs, but the name could be a bit snazzier. The Payoneer Virtual US Account might not seem all that exciting to some, but I assure you, this is a huge deal if you are an international payee. Take the following scenario as a case-in-point: Let’s say you’re an affiliate marketer living in Russia and you’ve just had your monthly commission deposited to your PayPal account. With Payoneer, it works like this now: you can perform an ACH transfer directly from your PayPal account to your Payoneer Virtual US Account. The funds will be immediately available on your Payoneer Debit MasterCard balance, ready for cash withdrawal from an ATM in Moscow, or available for charge at any MasterCard point-of-sale station (department stores, supermarkets, etc.). Payoneer’s Virtual US Account program is still in pilot mode and only available to a select group of cardholders, for whom Payoneer can accurately verify the source and destination of funds. While the program is clearly valuable to international payees, things are a bit stickier with the PayPals, LinkShares and iStockPhotos of the world whose “blessing” is necessary for the program to take off. The crux of their concern is a fear of issues related to money laundering compliance. They would prefer to avoid the matter completely → Read More
This is an especially good week for payment service provider Payoneer which is announcing it has received the remaining $3M of a $4M Greylock investment , and a new deal with iStockphoto. Payoneer offers Web-based businesses a method to pay their members/users/partners by way of prepaid debit cards. The fully-functioning debit MasterCards are issued to payees worldwide and can be used online, at points-of-sale, or at ATM’s for cash withdrawals in local currency. The 800-pound payment service provider is PayPal of course. (PaidByCash is another competitor). However, while PayPal is the top online payment service when it comes to person-to-person transactions, it is far from perfect in other respects, especially when it comes to international payments. For payees residing outside the US, PayPal cannot match the ease and simplicity that Payoneer offers when it comes to receiving their funds. PayPal requires a bank account to transfer funds internationally. To confirm the bank account, PayPal makes a micro-deposit (a few cents) into the account, and then has the payee report back the exact amount, thereby “proving” account ownership. The problem is that for this process to even take place, the banking institutions in the country where the payee resides must support EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer). Not all countries do. For example, India, China the USSR countries, and some Latin American countries don’t. (Incidentally, this wacky process is why I still don’t have a PayPal account… I’ve gone through it 4-5 times in the past few years… The micro-deposit doesn’t register in my account immediately and by the time I remember it, I’ve already made the purchase in some other manner). On Payoneer, account verification—a PayPal staple—is a non-issue. Anyone worldwide over 13 can get a card and get paid. Cards require one-time shipping and are then loaded and re-loaded electronically by Payoneer. Convenience-wise, the hassles and high fees normally associated with Wire Transfer and Check payments are greatly reduced or, when a bank is involved in the process, averted completely. Other than the expected back-office goodies, Payoneer offers its business customers a branding and retention tool in the form of a co-branded MasterCard (see examples right). Payoneer is also announcing the addition of iStockphoto to its client roster. By the end of the year, iStock will begin offering Payoneer as a payment method to its 35,000 contributing artists who earn royalties on the sale of their images and videos. Among Payoneer’s → Read More
