The year e-commerce grew up

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"The number of merchants we serve doubled this year, and the vast majority of those are new entrants to the market," says PayGate CEO, Peter Harvey. "We have also seen significant growth in the number of transactions. Considering the weakness of the South African economy and of the rand, that's a positive development."

He says a number of factors have contributed to this growth, including the launch of new mobile payment methods. "During this year we've added Zapper and MasterPass as mobile payment options for our merchants and we are seeing much traffic coming from mobiles.

"The big banks and retailers are now really pushing their e-commerce offerings. It has become much easier, more convenient and more secure for ordinary South Africans to buy goods and services online. Anecdotally, we've noticed that the number of packages being delivered to our own offices has gone through the roof this year."

PayGate has expanded its business in other ways, cementing significant new European relationships, establishing a UK data centre and expanding its footprint in Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda. "Africa is now top of the list for new global product launches. There is a massive generation hungry for new products and new ways of doing things. There is enormous demand for safe, efficient e-commerce and consumers are going to continue to drive change," he concludes.