A new collaboration to offer debit card payment for music streaming platform Spotify Brazil has seen Brazilian fintech startup EBANX join forces with payment services company Worldline.
Previously, the music streaming service’s premium subscription was limited to those in the country who had a credit card or used the boleto bancário. This is a traditional cash voucher service regulated by the country’s Central Bank, used in over 70% of online transactions.
As a country that has been relatively slow to make the transition to card payments, cash still constitutes around 50% of transactions in Brazil, according to a July report by the Central Bank of Brazil.
Likewise, in Brazil, traditional brick and mortar purchasing habits continue to be largely favoured over e-commerce, which is also something digital services such as Spotify have had to take into account.
Specialising in local payment processing across Latin America, EBANX knows all too well how important it is to play to a local market’s strengths. Speaking to Brazil Reports, Chief Operations Officer João Del Valle stressed that one of the most important aspects of the e-commerce industry is to, “understand your market and how people consume and pay in it. Understand how people search for information on Google about what you are selling, how do they navigate on websites that sell things that are similar to your product/service, how do they like to pay when shopping online.”
Enthusiastic to continue facilitating payment processes in Brazil, EBANX’s director of payment partnerships Andre Allain emphasised to Payment Source magazine that the team was keen to build up debit cards as forms of payment in Brazil, maintaining that they had been “flourishing as a preferred option in many situations.”
It is expected that music listeners across Brazil will be very satisfied with the new debit card payment feature on Spotify, which Worldline claim will be a safer, easier and quicker method compared to traditional methods such as the boleto. For many, debit card payments are also a safer option for paying online, as customers are just required to enter their card details and no PIN nor authentication is required.
Worth over US $20 billion, Spotify is the world’s leading music streaming service. This recent agreement represents a strategic partnership and is a good place to start for EBANX and Worldline, who are hoping the collaboration will boost the e-commerce market in Brazil.