Here’s another example of France and her companies coming together to go it alone against existing international equivalents…
The three main French mobile carriers – Orange, Bouygues and SFR – are teaming with IT company Atos Origin to start a new electronic payments system dubbed Buyster.
The mechanism will work “by linking a mobile phone number to a bank card”, says FT, which reckons Buyster will rival PayPal and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Checkout. But the companies add that Buyster will work with mobile and fixed internet. “It will be marketed to online merchants,” they say.
France’s newspapers and Orange recently formed a “kiosk” consortium, ePresse Premium, to charge for news on the web and e-readers…
Orange already operates its own Read&Go e-reader and replicas store. One can easily imagine connecting ePresse Premium and Buyster such that French electronic newspapers are paid for through mobile bills.
There is a high level of cooperation between hard-pressed publishers and the government in France, as the industry looks to dig itself out of its numerous holes.
The telcos and Atos have formed Buyster as a JV. Buyster GM Eric Gontier, in the release: “Over the next five years, we are counting on a share of the mCommerce market representing 10% of the turnover for eCommerce with an estimated amount of just over €6 ($8.18/£5.08) billion.”