DoCoMo, MasterCard announce e-commerce alliance

NTT DoCoMo has partnered with MasterCard Worldwide to enable its smartphone users to make contactless electronic payments in other countries.

The service will start sometime after next April.

With the contactless payment system, a smartphone or other device with an embedded IC chip can be waved over a sensor to make payments at shops or trains stations.

MasterCard offers the PayPass contactless payment system, which can be used at 500,000 locations in 41 countries and regions, including the U.S., South Korea and Taiwan.

The new alliance lets users of certain types of DoCoMo smartphones, those equipped with the Near Field Communication chip, to make payments via PayPass-compatible terminals.

Vicky Bindra, MasterCard Worldwide Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa president, said the launch of this service is significant and enhances convenience for DoCoMo smartphone users.

"It's also a landmark moment in the Japanese payment industry," Vicky Bindra, MasterCard Worldwide Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa president.