SMSCOIN is a

mobile payment A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of d ...

systems provider which specializes in

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

payments in particular, and provides premium SMS services in 92 countries supporting hundreds of

mobile carrier A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a wireless service provider, wireless carrier, cellular company, or mobile network carrier, is a provider of wireless communications services that owns or controls all the elements necessary to sell ...

networks worldwide. The main goal of the project was, and still is to cover as many countries worldwide as possible.

History

2006

SmsCoin project was launched in July 2006 with only 4 countries (

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

) offering 3 of the following services: sms:chat, sms:key and sms:bank. During month of November additional service called sms:transit was developed, and closer to the end of the year 13 countries became available.

2007

The beginning of 2007 was marked by adding a few more countries as well as developing innovative extensions for

browsers Browse, browser or browsing may refer to: Programs *Web browser, a program used to access the World Wide Web *Code browser, a program for navigating source code *File browser or file manager, a program used to manage files and related objects *Ha ...

and a

MIDlet A MIDlet is an application that uses the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) of the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) for the Java ME environment. Typical applications include games running on mobile devices and cell phones which h ...

that made it easier for SmsCoin' partners to access the statistics of their websites using mobile phones. English version of the website was presented in February. Its anniversary SmsCoin celebrated with 5 different sms:services across 18 countries worldwide working with over 5 thousand partners and processing more than a million SMS messages.

2008

Year 2008 began with presenting a new program for developing ready-to-use modules for popular

CMS CMS may refer to: Computing * Call management system * CMS-2 (programming language), used by the United States Navy * Code Morphing Software, a technology used by Transmeta * Collection management system for a museum collection * Color managem ...

, 10 of which were published on the website as well as brand new service sms:content was launched. In April SmsCoin announced the connection of 30 countries worldwide. During this harsh period caused by a fierce competition on mobile payments market the project prospered due to higher payouts as well as enabling partners to choose their own short codes. Additionally, across

the payouts were made in rubles, and partners could request their revenue share payout once every 5 days which than was quite extraordinary. Throughout October till November additional achievements were presented - first of all a global support was launched unifying all means of contact using

Instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...

. Secondly, SmsCoin now offered its services across so much as 40 countries.

2009

In March 2009 SmsCoin announced a series of events starting with even greater coverage - 50 countries, connecting several Latin American countries at once, next 6 Middle Eastern countries followed in May. 3rd anniversary celebration opened with a brand new and refreshing website design and structure improvement which made it much more convenient to work with. Immediately a new service called sms:donate was launched. Towards the end of the year SmsCoin project covered as much as 65 countries including its latest "acquisitions":

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. Throughout 2009 ready-to-use scripts library was considerably expanded as part of an improvement plan that began in 2008 and continues to this day forward.

2010

Good karma came in the beginning of 2010 when SmsCoin project connected the following countries

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

which considered to be unique on the mobile payments market. Moreover, during the summer of 2010 SmsCoin has connected 9 additional countries:

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, and by achieving that finally establishing itself a unique key leader within the mobile payments market. By November 2010 SmsCoin connected 87 countries.

2011

Connection of new countries ( Costa-Rica,

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

and

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

) was established, together with the increase of available rates range. The library of ready-made scripts for various CMS is significantly extended; in October a new product - inn-app payments library for

Android OS Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of deve ...

- is presented.

Unique features

SmsCoin is a public open-source project with free registration, and provides several features both on Russian and international markets as follows: * coverage in more than 92 countries, some of which cannot be found on any other similar service * library of ready-to-use modules for various

Review

SmsCoin service has been used repeatedly for the purposes of fraud, and despite the fact that all fraud attempts have been blocked, the service has been often criticized for its simplified registration process and services setup and maintenance.{{cn, date=April 2021

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Zong mobile payments Zong was a mobile payment company that allowed users to make micropayments on the Internet if they have a postpaid mobile phone. The payments were charged to their mobile phone bills by the mobile operator. The company was acquired by eBay in 201 ...

Mopay Mopay is a mobile payment platform represented in the U.S. by Mopay, Inc. Mopay and Mopay, Inc. are registered trademarks of MindMatics Group, a Germany-based mobile marketing company. History The brand mopay was first registered in Germany in ...

References

Payment service providers Software companies established in 2006 Mobile payments