Openbucks Launches the Gift Card Payment NetworkDur<strong>in</strong>g TechCrunch Disrupt, Openbucks is launch<strong>in</strong>g the Gift Card Payment Network. For the first time ever,consumers can use gift cards from trusted retail brands, such as Subway, Circle K, CITGO, Hess and SportsAuthority, as payment for onl<strong>in</strong>e games and at ecommerce sites. Openbucks turns gift cards <strong>in</strong>to a convenientonl<strong>in</strong>e purchas<strong>in</strong>g and payment method and is ideal for people who do not have a credit card or prefer not to usethem when pay<strong>in</strong>g onl<strong>in</strong>e.“We’ve created Openbucks to provide consumers with a simple and safe way to pay onl<strong>in</strong>e – similar tocash <strong>in</strong> the brick-and-mortar world,” said Marc Rochman, CEO and founder of Openbucks. “Twenty-five percentof U.S. households and most U.S. teens have no or very limited access to credit cards, and many consumersare leery ofgiv<strong>in</strong>g outf<strong>in</strong>ancial<strong>in</strong>formation.We’re aim<strong>in</strong>gto give thesepeople a frictionlesswayto purchaseonl<strong>in</strong>e.”Us<strong>in</strong>g anOpenbucksenabledgiftcard, consumerscancomplete atransaction <strong>in</strong>five seconds or less. After purchas<strong>in</strong>g a gift card at one of more than 100,000 locations <strong>in</strong> the United States andCanada, consumers can use it <strong>in</strong> hundreds of onl<strong>in</strong>e games, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g Aeria Games, Artix Enterta<strong>in</strong>ment, Bigpo<strong>in</strong>tand World Golf Tour, and e-tailers, which together have over 300 million monthly active users.For <strong>in</strong>stance, if you want to buy <strong>in</strong>-game credits for Bigpo<strong>in</strong>t’s hit Battlestar Galactica Onl<strong>in</strong>e or new<strong>Family</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> <strong>Gam<strong>in</strong>g</strong> 18
golf gear <strong>in</strong> World Golf Tour without a credit card, just enter the card number and p<strong>in</strong> on the back of your Subwaygift card and the transaction is complete.“We are build<strong>in</strong>g the world’s largest prepaid distribution network, leverag<strong>in</strong>g exist<strong>in</strong>g popular gift cardprograms,” said Itamar Kandel, president and co-founder of Openbucks. “Virtual goods purchases are projectedto reach $10 billion by 2013 so we believe the gam<strong>in</strong>g market is a great place to start. In beta test<strong>in</strong>g, we’re f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gthat up to 74 percent of the people who made an <strong>in</strong>-game purchase us<strong>in</strong>g a gift card through Openbucks hadnever bought virtual goods before. This is someth<strong>in</strong>g our retailers and gam<strong>in</strong>g companies are lov<strong>in</strong>g.”Us<strong>in</strong>g Openbucks is easy whether you are a consumer, an onl<strong>in</strong>e merchant or a retail gift card issuer. Consumersdo not have to worry about go<strong>in</strong>g over budget, gett<strong>in</strong>g a bill at the end of the month or hassl<strong>in</strong>g with fill<strong>in</strong>g outcomplicated payment forms at the end of the check out process. Onl<strong>in</strong>e merchants can add the Openbucks paymentoption to their shopp<strong>in</strong>g cart <strong>in</strong> a few simple steps through an application programm<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>terface (API).It takes little effort for retail gift card issuers to <strong>in</strong>tegrate with Openbucks as the company has relationshipswith the ma<strong>in</strong> process<strong>in</strong>g companies, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g Ceridian Stored Value Solutions and Fifth Third Bank.Initial retailers participat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the Openbucks Gift Card Payment Network <strong>in</strong>clude Subway, Circle K, CITGO,Hess and Sports Authority, which collectively have more than 41,000 stores and are distributed at more than60,000 additional po<strong>in</strong>ts of sales, which means more than 97 percent of consumers can grab a gift card from anOpenbucks retail partner with<strong>in</strong> m<strong>in</strong>utes.Retailers can leverage their exist<strong>in</strong>g gift card programs by mak<strong>in</strong>g their gift cards a preferred and recurr<strong>in</strong>gway to pay onl<strong>in</strong>e for consumers, driv<strong>in</strong>g foot traffic from onl<strong>in</strong>e to offl<strong>in</strong>e (O2O). Retailers receive freeonl<strong>in</strong>e exposure at checkout where consumers are focused and engaged, keep<strong>in</strong>g their brands top of m<strong>in</strong>d, andearn a profit from sales captured <strong>in</strong> the shopp<strong>in</strong>g cart of third party merchants via an embedded m<strong>in</strong>i digitalstore, a proprietary technology for which Openbucks has several pend<strong>in</strong>g patents.Sonic CD Sp<strong>in</strong>s Onto Tablets at GameStopSEGA® of America, Inc. announced that Sonic CD, the long-demanded fan favorite Sonic title, has outrun itsown re-release date to appear exclusively on tablets be<strong>in</strong>g sold at GameStop.Right now, gamers who purchase a tablet, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the Samsung Galaxy, Acer 100 and ASUS Transformer,be<strong>in</strong>g sold at 200 GameStop locations and onl<strong>in</strong>e at www.gamestop.com, will receive a copy of SonicCD, pre-<strong>in</strong>stalled and ready to play today- far ahead of its official launch <strong>in</strong> December. This exhilarat<strong>in</strong>g Sonicgame is compatible with the proprietary Bluetooth gam<strong>in</strong>g controller be<strong>in</strong>g offered with the tablets.“After 20 years of work<strong>in</strong>g with Sonic the Hedgehog, you would th<strong>in</strong>k we have learned how quickly hemoves, and how impatient he can get,” said Haruki Satomi, Senior Vice President of Digital Bus<strong>in</strong>ess at SEGA<strong>Family</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> <strong>Gam<strong>in</strong>g</strong> 19
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