Programs such as internationally recognized Start-Up Chile and Chile’s new portal for incorporating a business (online) in just one day is making it easier for the world to do business with Chile. While PayPal Latin America and Multicaja’s new partnership is working to make it easier for Chile to do business with the world.
Their newly launched program ‘Retiros Multicaja’ (announced April 5, 2013) will allow SMB’s in Chile to transfer money from their PayPal account and deposit it in their local bank account and withdraw it in Chilean pesos. It also significantly expands Chilean SMB’s prospective client base as they can now accept payment from 193 countries and access 128 million consumers who might be able to benefit from their product or service.
While this news may not seem ‘exceptional’ for most businesses especially those in North America or Europe, this is a very big deal and ‘win’ especially for emerging economies in Latin America.
Cross-border transactions are tough, especially when an emerging market is involved, regardless of whether the transactions are initiated from within or outside. Using credit and debit cards online is too risky for many buyers in developed markets such as U.S. and UK, and it is even more so in emerging markets where online fraud is much more common. PayPal comes in handy with its buyer protection which is typically much more user-friendly than dealing with card issuers and merchants.
-Terry Xie, Mercartor Advisory Group
Chilean based Multicaja together with its subsidiaries provides a transactional service that connects more than 15,000 retail outlets (shops, stores, supermarkets, restaurants, etc.) with banks, trading houses, phone companies, insurance companies, service companies, among others. The PayPal Multicaja partnership will allow cross-border e-commerce and mobile payments.
“With 10 million online users, an online shopping volume of nearly $2 million, a strong culture of innovation and many the leading e-commerce companies in Latin America, Chile is an important market for PayPal. Entering the market alongside a company like Multicaja gives us an opportunity to offer merchants and consumers an unmatched service that promotes global e-commerce through our easy, fast and secure platform.”
-Mario Mello, Head of PayPal Latin America
Santiago Hackathon Participation
As AndesBeat co-founder Carlos Leiva Burotto was one of the judges he had the opportunity to connect with some folks from the PayPal Latin American team including: Dario Fuentes, Head of Business, Chile; Rigo Rodriguez, Head of Integrations, Caribbean & Latin America; Lenny Markus, Technology Leadership Cohort; and Khurram Khan, who leads Latin America’s Development Community.
A few of them were in Santiago, to further show their support for Chilean SMB’s and startup founders and do their part in accelerating and internationalizing the local technology ecosystem.
They were in attendance at Santiago Hackathon, an event in which they co-organized with Microsoft. Hosted at Campus Bellavista de Universidad San Sebastián, the 24 hour hackathon challenged developers ‘hackers’ to create a Microsoft Window App or integrate the use of PayPal technology in their app.
A few pitches:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7Wc7-wQ-J8[/youtube]
The Winning Apps…
Rock’n’pool created by Danilo Durazzo, German Rimoldi was the winning team of the best use of PayPal technology. The app offers car pooling for night events.
Eskape, a new way of virtual travelling using Skype, created by Henry Tong and Adolfo Pizarro
City Diddy, a travelling contest check list, created Royce Fullerton, Praveen Ramineni, Geoff Booth, Andrew Plachuablarb and Nathaneal Smith.
Graffiti-X, street art mapping discovery created by Peter Newhook, Yamin Chalabi and Sam Philip. They were also the winning team of the best use of Windows technology.
PayPal Success Stories in Chile
Sky Airline and Fantastico sur are just a few of the companies in Chile who benefit from using PayPal in their daily business operations.
Founded in 2002, Sky Airline is the second largest airline in Chile. Web Manager Matías Ramis stated PayPal gave them access to foreign clients with a simple integration.
And Fantastisco sur offers treks and lodging in the extraordinary beautiful Chilean National Park, Torres del Paine, located in Chile’s Patagonia. General Manager, Ximena Castro, states that the PayPal’s recognized brand brings confidence to previous international consumers. She credits PayPal with being an important part of their online sales success.
Are you PayPal Chile’s next SMB success story?
