How Startup UniPin Hopes to Solve Payment Hassles for Indonesian Gamers

UniPin is a four-year-old Indonesian payment startup that aims to make payment for online games easier. It has around 30 staff working on UniPin, more than 100 games on its platform, and around 300,000 monthly active users who utilize it to buy gaming credits. Unipin is also able to draw strength from the exclusive partnership it established in its starting year with Indomaret, Indonesia’s largest chain of more than 6,000 minimarts, as points of sale for UniPin credits.

UniPin co-founder Ashadi Ang said:

The co-founders are online gamers ourselves and we understand the pain of buying game credits with vouchers in Indonesia. Previously, every game publisher had their own unique vouchers that they put in cybercafes for sales. This resulted in cybercafes selling many different types of vouchers from various publishers. The voucher is a physical good and cybercafes can’t keep too much stock. As a result, the problems of stocks running out and getting the right voucher for the right game at the value you want became a common pain point among gamers.

UniPin’s partnership with over 6,000 minimarts solves that problem by making gaming credits easily available throughout Indonesia. Gamers need just go to the minimarts and tell the cashier staff the amount of credit they want to purchase, make their payment, and they will be issued a receipt with unique codes which they need enter into their UniPin account to top up their credits. This effectively removes stocking issues and gamers can buy any amount they want.

On the game publishers front, UniPin will work with any game publisher to have UniPin’s payment API plugged into their game. Gamers can then use UniPin for any in-game purchase. This effectively solves the issue of too many types of gaming vouchers being offered by different game publishers, and it also allows the publishers to do what they are best at: making and publishing good games.

UniPin is also actively looking to get more game publishers to use its payment channel. In the near future, Ashadi shared that UniPin is looking to enable purchase of credit through ATM and bank transfer.

Earlier in the month, MOL Points, a new entrant to Indonesia with similar services, announced a collaboration with Alfamart, Alfamidi and Lawson, another chain of minimarts in Indonesia. It is worth noting that Indomog, another key player in this business of selling of gaming credits through physical stores has similar partnership with Alfamart, Alfamidi, Lawson, Carrefour and 7-Eleven in Indonesia. With more payment companies helping to make game credits easily available to end users, it only spells good news for game developers and publishers who long had difficulties monetizing their content.