Chillin’ With Brian of Zong/PayPal and the JFDI folks

This Friday we will be chilling with Brian Wey, Director of Product, Zong, which was acquired by PayPal in early July for USD 240M. At the same time, we’ll also be joining the folks behind JFDI as they are having their official launch of their JFDI-Innov8 100-day bootcamp. If you’re interested to join us, please sign up here.

eBay acquires mobile payment company Zong

Mobile payment company Zong has been acquired by eBay for approximately US$240 million on 7th July. With this acquisition, eBay looks set to add to its extensive e-commerce capabilities, which includes online payments solution PayPal.

Zong’s service enables consumers to purchase items online through their mobile phones or computers and have the transaction reflected on their phone bills. Users would only need to verify the transaction with their phone numbers.

Their service is available through more than 250 mobile careers around the world, serving 45 countries in 21 languages. In 2009, Zong processed payments for over 10 million unique users globally.

In Asia, Zong works with carriers in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and more (full list). Mobile commerce appears to have a promising future in the region, since smartphone usage among developed and developing countries in Asia is comparable to the West.