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3V bids for eBay success
22-11-2007
by Charlie Taylor

Irish online voucher payment firm 3V has teamed up with eBay.ie to make it easier for internet users without credit cards to purchase goods at online auctions.

The Dublin-based firm said on Thursday that its vouchers would allows customers to open PayPal accounts and to begin buying and selling on eBay.ie.

3V Vouchers are an alternative payment option allowing those who don't have credit cards to shop online. The vouchers can be purchased by anyone over the age of 16 and can be used wherever Visa is accepted. Customers can buy vouchers from participating Payzone shops nationwide in the same way that they currently purchase credit for their mobile phones.

The vouchers are also designed to help reduce fraud, as they cannot be skimmed, and security details, such as the expiry date, are sent separately to the customers' e-mail or mobile phone.

With Christmas just around the corner, the new partnership between 3V and eBay is timely and will no doubt be a bonus for internet users who don't have credit cards. It's estimated that 9 out of 10 sellers on eBay accept payment by PayPal and so being able to use 3V vouchers to pay for purchases gives 3V customers access to over 500,000 registered eBay users in Ireland, and of course the millions of users worldwide.

Commenting on the new agreement with 3V, eBay Ireland's head of product development, Eamonn Galvin, said that the firm was excited to be working with the online payments firm on the initiative.

"The Irish community is very important to eBay and we are always looking for ways to improve and simplify our user experience. This new partnership with 3V makes the buying and selling experience easier for Irish users by allowing non credit card holders to trade safely online using PayPal." Said Galvin.

The new deal comes just one month after an agreement was signed between 3V and the digital media delivery company 7digital.com, to provide an exclusive partnership that allows 3V's customers in Ireland to download music directly from a newly created website.

The online music store (www.3v.ie) offers up to 1 million songs and also has up to 3,000 videos for download. Customers using 3Vs prepaid vouchers can access DRM-free tracks from international stars such as the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Radiohead, enabling them to store music files on their computers, mobile phones or a wide range of MP3 players. All files are encoded at 320kbps, which is considered equivalent to, if not better than, CD quality.

Last October, 3V, which was founded in Dublin in 2004, announced that it raised EUR20 million to fund an expansion into the UK market. The firm also intends to roll out its products in Germany, Holland and Spain shortly. The company claims to have 100,000 customers in Ireland alone.