Tom Online, Umpay join on m-commerce in China

Hong Kong’s Tom Online, a leading Internet portal, inked a deal with Union Mobile Pay (Umpay) to develop mobile commerce applications in China. They hope to expand payment services as well as the range of new items users can buy, the companies said.

The two companies will look to mobile phones as a major way for users to pay for goods and services such as utilities bills, show tickets, or airplane or train tickets, said a Tom Online representative Thursday.

A number of companies have turned to mobile phones as a way to market to China’s masses, since the country has the highest number of mobile phone subscribers in the world, with more than 360 million at the end of June, according to government tallies. In addition, credit card use is not as popular in China yet, making mobile phones a potential wallet for people.

Tom Online expects to add its wireless content to the deal, serve as the place where payments are made and further expand product offerings as well as the merchants users can buy from, according to a joint-statement.

Tom Online has over 70 million wireless Internet users, the company said. Umpay has 3 million registered users and has signed up eight Chinese banks to offer mobile wallet services, the companies said.

Umpay’s shareholders include China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile phone carrier, with more than 230 million subscribers, in addition to China Union Pay, a national payment network established by a consortium of over 100 banks. These two supporters should help push business forward, Tom Online and Umpay said.