TechFlow News, according to CoinDesk, Mastercard is partnering with Swoo Pay, a mobile payment app focused on emerging markets, to offer loyalty rewards in cryptocurrency and fill the gap left by companies like Google in the global payments space.
Through this new partnership, Mastercard and Swoo will target emerging regions such as Africa and Southeast Asia—particularly areas not reached by Google Pay. "This also includes connecting users in countries where affordable Huawei smartphones are highly concentrated," said Filipp Shubin, co-founder of Swoo.
In an interview, Shubin noted: "In many emerging countries like Nigeria, Kenya, the Philippines, and Indonesia, billions of users have Mastercard and Visa cards but cannot access Google Pay. Another issue involves countries with significant Huawei smartphone market share, where U.S. government sanctions mean these devices lack Google services."
Shubin added that Mastercard will act as the ultimate backer of the Swoo token—the reward provided to users—which can be instantly converted into other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or USDC. During a pilot in January, 17,000 participants took advantage of a 5% crypto cashback program.
