| Industry | Mobile Payment |
|---|---|
| Area served | Australia |
| Website | www.mhits.com.au |
mHITs (Mobile Handset Initiated TransactionS) is an Australia micropayment service which allows users to send and receive money via SMS. The company offers a person-to-person payment system that uses a mobile phone as the transaction device rather than an automatic teller or EFTPOS terminal. Users send and receive money via SMS text message and can make payments instantly between any Australian mobile phone.
Users can also make purchases from on-line merchants, pay parking fees and taxi fares. mHITs also offers a Point Of Sale (POS) terminal which allows the service to be used at retail points of sale, such as ordering a coffee or purchasing a magazine. As the SMS authorising payment can also include a message, users have discovered that the service can be utilised to pre-order products, such that they are ready for pickup upon arrival at the store.
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mHITs was first launched in 2004 as a platform for delivering pre-paid mobile re-charge vouchers via SMS. The service was re-launched in May 2006 in its current form, focusing on person-to-person transactions and beginning a limited rollout of merchant terminals in and around Sydney.
mHITs was an episode winner on ABC TVs The New Inventors.[1] and has won technology and innovation awards including the Australian Capital Territory's financial category of the iAwards[2],and the People's Choice Next Big Thing Award in 2007.[3]
mHITs utilises a prepaid model (identical in principle to pre-paid phone credit) to ensure that the customer has funds ready to use before authorising payment transactions.This model ensures that the customer will not continue incurring debt or overdraw fees as an mHITs account cannot be overdrawn. Users and merchants are required to register an account with mHITs to access the mHITs payment service. Transactions are possible between:
The number of Sydney cafe locations opting to join the mHITs network has been steadily growing since the beginning of 2009. The current promotion "Next Coffee Free," began in early April 2009 and coincided with a Facebook advertising campaign in an effort to gain further brand awareness. Customers opting to join the service are welcomed with an initial free $5 worth of credit. The service provides an additional $5 credit to existing members for each new person they introduce to mHITs.
Canberra based coffee chain "Coffee Guru" recently launched mHITs in its stores, enabling its customers to bypass the ordering queue.