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  • Avid Myanmar Travelers Can Now Pay with Mastercard and CB Bank Credit

    Avid Myanmar Travelers Can Now Pay with Mastercard and CB Bank Credit

    As Myanmar continues to see positive economic growth projections[1], its people are increasingly seeking overseas destinations. The latest Mastercard research revealed that Myanmar is the fastest growing outbound travel market in Asia Pacific with a growth projection of 10.6% for the next five years.

    In light of this, Mastercard has once again partnered Co-operative Bank Ltd (CB Bank) to launch Classic, Gold and Platinum Mastercard cards, which will be made available to Myanmar residents and citizens when traveling abroad. 

    Mr. Kyaw Lynn, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of CB Bank said: “As more Myanmar residents and citizens travel abroad, it is crucial to have convenient and secure access to their funds wherever they are. A cashless society is an important goal for CB Bank. Although still a work in progress, we are working hard with like-minded partners such as Mastercard to achieve that goal by expanding the payment options, increasing usage of ATMs, POS terminals and enhancing e-commerce capabilities. For starters, we are already seeing a great shift from cash to electronic payments. And on average, there are 9,000 transactions being made monthly via electronic payment at the point-of-sale.”

    Mr. Antonio Corro, country manager, Thailand and Myanmar, Mastercard, said: “For a country that had only opened its doors not too long ago, Myanmar’s economic and outbound travel projections are very encouraging. To meet the increasing demands for travel, we have deepened our partnership with CB Bank to launch our first credit card in the country. This signifies a big step towards the greater development of the electronic payments infrastructure and it also means that consumers are able to make more secure and convenient payments for their purchases when travelling abroad.” 

    Supporting Myanmar in Its Journey to Greater Inclusion

    Since entering the market in 2012, Mastercard has strived to assist Myanmar in its nascent journey towards financial inclusion. In October 2013, Mastercard and CB Bank had launched Myanmar’s first ever payment product, a prepaid travel card for locals called the CB Bank EASI Travel Prepaid Mastercard card, which has seen a healthy take-up rate. Approximately seventy new card applications on average are received every day, according to Mr. Kyaw Lynn. The latest of their efforts include the launch of Mastercard’s first contactless card in Myanmar. 

    With less than 10% of the population holding bank accounts, there is still so much that needs to be done to bring more citizens into the financial system and it is widely acknowledged that the journey to financial inclusion in Myanmar will not be a smooth one.

    In a report by The Fletcher School, Tufts University – conducted with the support of Mastercard and the Myanmar Development Resource Institute’s Center for Economic and Social Development (MDRI-CESD) – one of six key findings point to trust playing a key role in increasing adoption of financial services.

    This means there a stronger impetus and opportunity for Mastercard to assist in rebuilding the financial sector and bringing greater financial access to the population. 

    “Building consumer trust in electronic payments is crucial. In line with our financial inclusion strategy in Myanmar, we will continue to provide support in educating locals on the benefits of electronic payments and increasing access and acceptance to financial services and infrastructure,” Mr. Corro added. 

    The number of ATMs in Myanmar which accept Mastercard has been growing at an astounding rate, from over 140 ATMs in 2013 to almost 1,800 ATMs in just three years, marking a near 13-fold increase. The number of point-of-sale (POS) acceptance terminals grew from 72 to over 3,800 in the same period, which signify a strong adoption of cashless payments. At present, more than 3,200 restaurants, retail outlets and hotels in Myanmar accept payment cards.

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  • You can now order pizza from a robot in Singapore

    You can now order pizza from a robot in Singapore

    If your Pizza Hut clerk seems like a robot, you may have stumbled into Singapore and a near future in retail commerce.

    Before the end of this year, credit card giant MasterCard will deploy an actual robot in one lucky Pizza Hut location in Singapore that will not only engage with customers, but help them fulfill their pizza cravings by guiding them through a purchase and assisting them in completing a mobile transaction.

    MasterCard announced on Tuesday that, by the end of this year, it will launch a personalized shopping and concierge experience that will also serve as the very first commerce application for Softbank Robotic’s Pepper robot.

    The experiment “follows our own philosophy that every device is a commerce device,” Tobias Puehse, VP Innovation Management, MasterCard Labs, told Mashable.

    Pepper’s new job comes on the heels of news that Softbank Robotics’ (formerly Aldebaran) adorable and emotive 4-foot-tall robot is finally getting an Android SDK and would soon be coming to America.
    The best robot
    MasterCard chose Pepper because of “its early success in Japan, in terms of being active in a retail environment with various partners,” Puehse said.

    The credit card company spent months programming the commerce experience and had to overcome some challenges, like the fact that Pepper doesn’t come equipped with Low Energy Bluetooth or NFC communication abilities. Eventually they settled on placing a Bluetooth LE beacon near Pepper, which connects to the store’s Wi-Fi network — the same one the Pepper robot will be on — and lets the customer connect via Bluetooth.

    In practice, Pepper will greet would-be pizza hounds using natural language and cognition, as opposed to interface requests. If you have MasterCard’s MasterPass Wallet application on your phone (Android or iOS), a little Pepper icon will appear in it. If you don’t, Pepper asks you to scan a QR code. Once you’re connected, Pepper will be able to glean your name, as well as your shopping preferences, and might ask you, “Would you like to have your favorite drink again?”

    Pepper will guide you through the product selection process, but, according to Puehse, can also handle random questions about, say, the calorie count in pizza. (But, do you really want to know the answer to that?)

    One thing Pepper does not do, though, is complete the transaction for you. For the sake of security, MasterCard chose to keep the transaction on your mobile device. Pepper will only know that you are ready to buy that slice, send your phone the order details and, once you’ve bought it, get the transaction-complete notification. Pepper will then tell you where to go pick up your pizza.
    Pizza takes time
    Because Pepper is a conversational robot and MasterCard designed the interaction to be “human-like,” Puehse said, there won’t necessarily be any efficiency gains from shopping with a robot. The benefit is that, when using Pepper to get that slice of buffalo pizza, there’s no learning curve. Pepper will, in essence, communicate with you just as a highly skilled pizza retail clerk might. It will know the product, respond to questions about it and, perhaps, be a bit more knowledgeable about your pizza desires and needs.

    Puehse told Mashable that he can envision a store full of Pepper robotics, each one helping a different customer, but the near-term goal is to “make sure it has all the value that we anticipate it will.” If all goes well, yes, MasterCard wants pizza-selling robots to “proliferate in Asia Pacific and beyond,” Puehse said.

    Unfortunately, there’s no timeline for Pepper coming to U.S.-based Pizza Huts. Still, Pepper’s new commerce chops might almost make it worth taking the longest pizza-run in history.

    Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

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