Cybercash Inc. announced agreements to make its Internet payment system available in Europe.
Cybercash's "electronic wallet," which lets customers use credit cards to buy goods via the Internet, would be offered to Europeans later this year through two transaction processing companies. The wallet is currently available only in the United States.
Sligos, a Paris-based payment service provider, announced plans to market Cybercash's product in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
Point Transaction Systems of Oslo, Norway, said it will make the Cybercash wallet available in Sweden by this summer.
"This is the beginning of a series of international announcements we'll be putting out," said Magdalena Yesil, Cybercash's vice president of marketing.
The partnerships, Ms. Yesil said, "go to show that the Internet is a global environment."
The announcements also tighten the race to provide payment services over that huge, global web of computer networks. Digicash of Amsterdam, the developer of the Ecash digital money system, announced an alliance last week with a European Internet service provider, making its product available, initially, in Finland. Digicash has also licensed its system in Sweden and to Mark Twain Bancshares in St. Louis.
Reston, Va.-based Cybercash, which made its initial public stock offering last month, would be competing more directly with Digicash later this year when it expects to enhance its electronic wallet technology with digital "coins." Digicash's Ecash is coin-based.
Jacques Maugin, who heads the Internet development division at Sligos, said his company was attracted to that forthcoming digital cash capability.
Sligos is one of Europe's leading bank card and payment services companies, with more than 6,000 employees.
"We have no solutions for micropayments, so our offerings are complementary," Mr. Maugin said.
He said Sligos also chose Cybercash because the companies agree that "we are not banks and we do not want to interfere in the relationship between bank and customer."
Anders Thell, manager of development and marketing for Point Transaction Systems' subsidiary in Sweden, echoed Mr. Maugin's view, saying that his company prefers "the already-available infrastructure for card payments and the banking infrastructure."
A Stockholm-based affiliate, Point Scandinavia, is testing a smart card- based electronic purse system in Sweden. The company's venture with Cybercash will be its first payment foray onto the Internet, Mr. Thell said.
He said his company passed over Digicash's Ecash because it "creates a new environment." He predicted Digicash would not do well in Scandinavia.
Ms. Yesil of Cybercash said Digicash has "a very different business model" and is not a direct competitor. While Digicash has developed a micropayment system that accommodates small transfers of digital cash, Cybercash has plans to offer credit card, coin, and check options through its wallet, Ms. Yesil said.
