Phoebe Magdirila · · 2 min read2 Philippine daily deal sites to accept Bitcoin payments via Coins.ph
Coins.ph launched in the Philippines last year offering a Bitcoin trading platform in the country. Following this, it is now set to provide a Bitcoin payment service for daily deals sites MetroDeal and CashCashPinoy this month, with the aim of giving more payment options to consumers.
Given the low credit card penetration in the Philippines and nearby Southeast Asian countries, Coins.ph co-founder Ron Hose believes this can help increase e-commerce transactions in the region. He says:
One of the biggest obstacles for growth of e-commerce is the availability of payment methods. Credit cards tend to charge between three to five percent.
Bitcoin allows the 95 million people in the Philippines who don’t have credit cards to pay with Bitcoin at MetroDeal and CashCashPinoy’s websites. We think [there’s] a strong business case for bitcoin in emerging countries as it opens up a large market that we didn’t have before.
A QR code for the merchants’ Bitcoin ID will be integrated to the e-commerce site’s checkout cart. Customers can send their payment through the a Bitcoin wallet. Once completed, the product can be released for delivery.
On the merchants’ end, Coins.ph guarantees the full Peso equivalent of the Bitcoin payment – without service fees – and this is transferred to the merchant’s bank account the next day. It generates revenue by charging customers a small fee for every transaction.
Apart from the two deals sites, Coins.ph is also looking to provide this service to more merchants in the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia.
(Editing by Terence Lee)
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