BitWallet, a joint venture company headed by Sony and
NTT DoCoMo, which operates a fledgling electronic money system in
Japan, has increased its capitalisation by more than 80% as it
prepares to expand its service to new retailers and add new
functions.
The company has issued an additional ¥5.9bn (US$49.1 million) in
shares in third-round financing at the end of January to boost its
Edy e-money service.
The service, which started commercial operations in 2001, is
available through 2,100 shops and 650,000 cards have been issued
although use is still low. BitWallet hoped to see 25,000 retailers
accepting the card and 8.5 million cards in circulation by the end
of March 2004.
A big step towards that goal will come later this year when NTT
DoCoMo begins embedding the Edy function into its mobile phones, so
that customers can pay for goods by holding their phones up to Edy
payment points. Credit card companies and banks, which make up a
large portion of BitWallet shareholders, are also understood to be
considering adoption of the technology.
Edy cards, which are based on Sony's Felica contactless
smartcard technology, can also double as corporate ID badges and ID
cards.