Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
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Xoom Corp., a 10-year-old service that lets U.S. users send money online to persons in 30 countries, on Monday introduced a mobile version of its service. The new Web site, optimized for the mobile Web, works with any mobile device with a browser and an Internet connection. “Our customers have always been able to send money at any time, now they can send money from anywhere,” said Xoom president and chief executive John Kunze in a statement.
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While the mobile service just launched, early results have been “overwhelmingly positive,” says Julian King, Xoom’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate development. “Out customer base is delighted, but it’s super early.” The new service relies on technology from mobile-commerce vendor Usablenet Inc., New York.
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As with Xoom’s PC-based service, senders can fund transfers with a bank account or credit or debit card. Recipients can receive their payments in cash or have them deposited into a bank account. Except for cash pickups at financial institutions or retail stores that support Xoom, the money transfers occur entirely online, unlike the case with traditional remittances. Bank-account deposits can be available for withdrawal in “minutes,” says King, as a result of agreements the San Francisco-based company has forged with financial institutions in its overseas markets.
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The service, which charges $4.99 per transfer, allows users to track the status of their remittances and calculate how much recipients will receive given local exchange rates.
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King tells Digital Transactions News the company introduced the mobile service to add to its convenience over brick-and-mortar remittances. Some 10% of Xoom’s user base was already using mobile devices to access the company’s service, he adds. “It’s so easy to send money online as opposed to going to a store on the store’s hours,” King says. “To send from anywhere makes a ton of sense.”
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For that reason, the company is starting with a mobile Web version of its service, which can be used with any device equipped with a browser, including but not limited to smart phones. “An app might be coming,” King says, though he adds the company is not committed to this course.
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King refuses to say how many users Xoom has. The service, which handles money transfers exclusively from senders in the United States to recipients in other countries, has seen its transaction volume nearly double each year over the past three to five years, King says without disclosing numbers. While Xoom early on relied on distribution agreements with banks and retailers in the U.S., it now markets its service directly to users. “The direct-to-consumer model has really taken off over the last five years,” says King.
