TrueMoney expands bill-payment service

TrueMoney expands bill-payment service
The Nation (19 October 2007)

Customers of TrueMoney's partners can now pay their True Group, utility and other bills at "TrueMoney Express" payment counters.

The partners are VCD/DVD rental store chain Tsutaya (Thailand), Double A paper maker Advance Agro and prepaid top-up service provider Electronics Payment Network (Thailand). The service will be available at 10,000 outlets countrywide by year-end, double the current figure of 5,000, TrueMoney president Adhiruth Thothaveesansuk said yesterday. The partners do not expect to earn much from franchising the new service but consider it as a complement to their main business. Besides looking for products at their shops, visitors can also settle their bills there. Tsutaya has 260 branches nationwide serving 2.4 million member families, while Double A covers the country with 1,111 stores. TrueMoney Express aims not to be in direct competition with the similar Counter Service of agriculture conglomerate Charoen Pokphand, which is the founder of True Corp, but to get closer to and present another choice for True customers. An estimated 2.5 million of cellular operator True Move's 9 million subscribers use TrueMoney to pay bills from their mobile phones. TrueMoney expects to generate Bt1.2 billion in fee income from transactions worth Bt10 billion this year.