Paymob Teams With Arabic Streaming Platform Shahid

Paymob wants to help Egyptian consumers pay for streaming video via eWallets.

The financial services company announced in a Thursday (March 9) press release that it has teamed with Arabic streaming platform Shahid to let the service’s customers in Egypt pay for subscription video on demand (SVOD) via eWallets processed using Paymob’s infrastructure.

“Our technology enables Shahid to lead the way in the industry, making SVOD more accessible to millions of people by expanding digital payments acceptance methods,” Paymob Chief Commercial Officer Gillian Shaaban said in the release. “This is a great milestone, and we are thrilled that Shahid trusted Paymob to bring it to fruition.”

The partnership, which the companies said in the release is an industry first, is happening at a time when streaming platforms in the Middle East/North Africa region (MENA) are increasingly embracing mobile payments.

“Around the world, localizing payment methods is key for streaming platforms that don’t want to exclude potential customers,” PYMNTS reported in January. “For example, Netflix has sought to broaden the range of alternative payment methods it accepts to include UPI in India and the GoPay digital wallet in Indonesia.”

In MENA, a new sports and entertainment streaming platform called TOD is looking to entice customers by allowing payment via direct carrier billing (DCB), which allows users to charge payments to their mobile phone carrier bills.

TOD, created by the Qatari media conglomerate beIN Media Group, will accept DCB for subscription payments with the help of a partnership with TPAY Mobile.

By employing TPAY’s DCB technology, the company said it expects to expand its services to customers who may not have access to a credit or debit card, first targeting consumers in Egypt before expanding to more countries across the MENA region.

And with mobile network operators increasingly enabling DCB and companies like TPAY Mobile creating single points of connection for businesses that want to facilitate the payment method, streaming services are among several types of subscription-based businesses that can benefit from the technology.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS spoke with Paymob co-founder and CEO Islam Shawky about the imbalance between payments issuance and acceptance, and the way that disparity is preventing small businesses from fulfilling their potential.

“We’re looking at markets that are very advanced in issuance but have a mismatch in acceptance,” Shawky told PYMNTS, using the example of Pakistan, a country with a population of over 220 million where Paymob expanded operations last year.

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