Even Level-up-Games Needed a Payment System
A secure, stable and reliable payment system is still one of the factors hindering the total take-off of e-commerce in the Philippines. I get this notion confirmed more each time I try to set up an online store. It was reinforced once again when I heard Ben Colayco talk of Level-Up-Games own experience during a Philippine Internet Commerce Society (PICS) membership meeting.
I was in the PICS meeting on an invite and was also lucky to get a glimpse of the some other popular online faces like Mike Abundo, Maan Tolentino, and Mon Lizardo (of Inq7).
In the event, I had the pleasure of listening to Ben Colayco. Ben is considered one of the founders of the Philippine Massive Multiplayer Online Game(MMORPG) called Ragnarok. He gave a brief history of their company and explained that the payment mechanisms were one of their initial stumbling blocks. They eventually overcame it by using the Prepaid Card scheme and having an extensive distribution network.
For the benefit of those who don?t know, Level-up-Games is the company behind Ragnarok. The company is said to get at least P96 Million a month. The game ‘Ragnarok’ peaks around 57,000 concurrent users online.