Finally, PayPal available in Indonesia

Oct 16, 2006 23:20

Good news hit Indonesia's cyberspace and blogosphere recently. PayPal is now available in Indonesia! This is a really good news for Indonesians to use this service for their online payment solution.

Prior to this announcement, Indonesian users could not apply for a PayPal account. My fellow countrymen, especially those living here, were previously unable to send and receive payment through the PayPal service. Of course, this wasn't good since I could not even contribute online donations which require a PayPal account.

I don't know what exactly happened with regard to PayPal's policy, but it could most probably be spurred on by increasing cyberfraud in Indonesia.

But now things seem better, with PayPal's decision to put Indonesia on its latest approved list. PayPal has announced that residents in 48 countries can now use PayPal in their local markets to send money online. The new markets include Indonesia, the Philippines (as my colleague Joey Alarilla already blogged about here), Croatia, Fiji, Vietnam and Jordan.

PayPal has also added support for a further 10 currencies to its Internet payment system. The latest currencies to be added are the Czech koruna, Danish krona, Hong Kong dollar, Hungarian forint, New Zealand dollar, Norwegian krona, Polish zloty, Singapore dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc.

Indonesia in PayPal

Founded in 1998, PayPal, enables any individual or business with an email address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online. It serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as checks and money orders.

PayPal has quickly become a global leader in online payment solutions with 100 million account members worldwide. Available in 103 countries and regions around the world, the company claims 14 million accounts globally, and total transactions of US$8.9 billion in the second quarter of 2006.

Located in San Jose, California, PayPal was acquired by eBay Inc. in October 2002.

Do be aware that the latest "newcomers"--along with other tens of countries which had been approved earlier--are able only to send money instead of receive payment. Why do their PayPal accounts have send-only capabilities? According to PayPal:

Due to the complexities of global finance, members in certain countries and regions need to meet the criteria to fully utilize our system, but this is not a reflection on the customer. PayPal is constantly working to expand and improve services for our customers. We hope to expand our features for these countries and regions, but we cannot give a timetable for this expansion.

It's OK, better to have sending capabilities than nothing like before. However, it's the first significant step towards having convenient online transactions on the Internet, right?

I really appreciated that announcement. I will make my PayPal account soon. Thanks a bunch, PayPal!

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