Advanced Info Service (AIS), Thailand's largest mobile operator, is investing 787 million baht through its subsidiary Advanced mPAY to acquire 33.3% of Rabbit Line Pay (RLP), an e-payment platform provider, to capitalise on the push toward a cashless society.
With the partnership, AIS aims to become the No.1 mobile payment platform in the country by 2021.
The move is also intended to help the company compete with other e-payment platform providers for unbanked people, especially the partnership of Ascend Money and Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group.
"Under the partnership between AIS and RLP, the business ecosystem of three parties [AIS, Rabbit and Line] will make touch-point capability for end users 10 times larger than Ascend Money and Ant," said AIS chief executive Somchai Lertsutiwong.
Mr Somchai said AIS is the biggest telecom operator today with 40.1 million subscribers.
Rabbit is the No.1 micropayment operator providing 8.5 million cards to users accessing public transport. Line Thailand is the biggest instant messaging application with 42 million users.
AIS also has 15,000 privilege outlets and 200,000 telecom distributors, while Rabbit has 200 brand partners (offline) and 600 online merchants via 5,200 touch points.
With the latest partnership, RLP now has three major shareholders: AIS's mPAY, Line Thailand by Line Pay Corporation and Rabbit Pay System (RPS), each holding 1,999,998 shares or 33.3%.
Mr Somchai said the synergy between RLP and AIS will be integrated on the myAIS app to enable RLP to be the exclusive mobile payment platform.
That move entails migrating 4 million mPay users to Rabbit Line Pay, including AIS prepaid top-up, AIS postpaid bill payment, AIS Fibre bill payment, credit cards and utilities for 200 bill payment services.
This will enhance the mobile payment experience for AIS customers via the RLP platform.
E-wallet services will also be available for RLP users at all AIS channels nationwide.
AIS's strength in network quality and mobile payment with nationwide top-up agents and billers will provide the best benefits to AIS and RLP customers in Thailand, he said.
Mr Somchai said the partnership deal is part of AIS's digital life service ecosystem that has been developed through five pillars, comprising mobile money, video, Internet of Things, cloud computing and partner platforms.
Nelson Leung, chief executive of BSS Holdings Co, the parent firm of Rabbit, had high praise for the trinity partnership.
"Line's platform is perfect for distribution, as everyone in Thailand uses it. Line Pay is already on everyone's phone," he said.
"With the BTS running through the heart of Bangkok and Rabbit's retail network, Line's distribution network and AIS's users, we will be the No.1 payment channel in Thailand."
