Eyeing Kuwait as a hotspot for technology development, online payment provider paysafecard is bringing its prepaid services to the country as a springboard to establishing itself in the Middle East.
Vienna-based paysafecard, which generally targets consumers without bank accounts, will initially focus on the online gaming and digital entertainment industries in Kuwait, the company said in an Oct. 9 press release.
The paysafecard system operates much like a prepaid mobile phone card, and will be available in amounts of five to 60 Kuwaiti dinar [one Kuwaiti dinar equals $3 U.S.] for social media and digital content spending.
Paysafecard customers use cash to purchase a 16-digit PIN to use for online shopping. Paysafecard PINs will be distributed at more than 1,000 sales outlets in Kuwait, the company said.
“Kuwait is, without a doubt, a poster child of the digital age," Udo Muller, CEO of paysafecard, stated in the release. Roughly 85% of the country's 2.75 million people are younger than age 40 and are "highly open to technological innovations," Muller said.
After the launch in Kuwait, paysafecard plans to introduce its prepaid service in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
In the summer of 2014, paysafecard brought its prepaid online payment service to
Around the same time, the company began offering its customers a plastic prepaid option through a partnership with MasterCard. The
Paysafecard says its prepaid service is now available in 41 countries and users can purchase PINs at more than 500,000 sales outlets worldwide.
