Through its Indian General Manager, Alon Shankar, Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT) has announced that it is awaiting regulatory clearance from the Reserve Bank of India before rolling out Fitbit Pay in the country. Fitbit launched the NFC-based payment earlier this year supported by its Fitbit Ionic and Versa Smartwatches.
Fitbit Pay is already available in 25 countries globally including the US, UK, Australia, and Singapore. Fitbit smartwatches are the second most popular brands after Apple’s. Although Fitbit entered the industry a bit late, the is gaining traction gradually closing up the gap with the industry’s leader by the day.
Fitbit thrives in value addition. The company is constantly updating its products; recently it updated its brands of Fitbit Ionic, Fitbit Ionic: Adidas edition and Fitbit Versa smartwatches with Fitbit OS 3.0 to match Apple’s competition.
Creating versatile smartwatches that can be used in the health sector, fitness and Payment is giving Fitbit and edge against competitions.
RBI is the only limitation available
Back to the Indian case, Shankar said that “We (Fitbit) are ready to launch Fitbit Pay in India and it is just a matter of time as we are waiting for RBI to provide approvals so that customers can add their cards to the Fitbit Pay infrastructure.”
Shankar added that Fitbit Pay users from other countries could make payments in India using the service on POS terminals. The only challenge is that they cannot add Indian debit or credit cards to the Fitbit Pay App. It is, however, not clear as to when the RBI will issue the clearance.
Fitbit Pay In UAE
Fitbit Pay has recently received support from the Dubai Bank Emirates NBD. Emirates NBD becomes the first bank in the Middle East to allow the service even as contactless payment gains widespread popularity in the region. Now holders of the Emirates NBD credit card or debit cards can add the cards to the Fitbit Pay app and carry out payments using the supported Fitbit’s smartwatches.
During the announcement, Suvo Sarkar, senior EVP, and head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management said that the partnership with Fitbit aligns with the company’s mission to create seamless payment experience for its clients.
UAE is shaping up to be a contactless NFC payment haven as Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) recently launched its Google Pay service as well.
AIB Supports Fitbit Pay
Well also among the recent institutions to launch Fitbit Pay is Ireland’s AIB. The commercial bank announced that the availability of Fitbit Pay to all its customers across Ireland in possession of Fitbit Versa, Fitbit Ionic and the special edition Fitbit charge three smartwatches.
Fitbit Pay offers a secure way to make payments using the smartwatches mentioned above. The payment method uses standard tokenization platform which ensures that users’ card information cannot be revealed or shared with merchants and even Fitbit itself. Users can also set their secret PIN to tighten the transaction’s security even more.
Fitbit’s stock gaining
After losing value for quite a while now Fitbit’s shares are ending the year strong. The stock has been gaining in the past trading sessions closing at $5.03 during Friday’s trading session. The stock has a 52-week high of $7.79 with a 52-week low of $4.23 and a market valuation of $1.26 billion.
Source: stockchart.com
With the efforts the company is making on its products and market coverage, next year might turn out to be even higher.