(This June 28 story corrects after clarification from the company that acceptance of the system by these platforms is not certain.)
WARSAW (Reuters) - Platforms such as Netflix, Uber and other companies could soon be able to accept payments using Poland's Blik, according to the chief executive of Polish Payment Standard (PPS), the company behind the system.
PPS, created by a partnership of six Polish banks, has embedded Blik in mobile banking apps and allows users to pay online or in stores, withdraw money at ATMs and make transfers.
The payments industry has undergone a major shake-up in recent years, with consolidation as major players adapt to rapidly developing technology and changing consumer habits.
PPS CEO Dariusz Mazurkiewicz hopes introducing the system on to sites like Netflix, through two partnerships which are due to be announced soon, will help it expand internationally.
"Enlarging the scope of our activity with this kind of player ... means that we are building a very interesting acceptance network, not only for Polish bank customers, it might be any other bank customer," Mazurkiewicz told Reuters.
"The next step will be to invite banks from other countries and this is why we want to concentrate our efforts right now on our region, central Europe," Mazurkiewicz said.
PPS also aims to sell its software to countries where it does not plan to launch it under the Blik brand and is in talks to sell the system to companies in two other markets, one in Africa and one in Latin America, Mazurkiewicz said.
Last year PPS announced a partnership with Mastercard which Mazurkiewicz said means it will start to offer contactless payments from the second half of 2019.
Mazurkiewicz said PPS was not considering an initial public offering and declined to comment on its valuation.
Since its launch in 2015 Blik has seen strong growth in Poland, a country of 38 million people, with the number of transactions rising from around 2 million to 91 million in 2018.
"It's just tripled from one year to another and ... we think that we will stick to this triple growth from one year to another in 2019," Mazurkiewicz said.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish; Editing by Alexander Smith)
