eSewa - Nepal's first online payment gateway

eSewa

                                                                       eSewa is Nepal-based company that mainly focuses on electronic payment system It is one of the major service provided by f1soft.com which is the well-known name for safer and easier way to pay online. eSewa was initiated in 2009, to fill the gap and serve as a bridge between the merchant’s website and the financial institutions that process the transaction. It has been growing as trusted company because of its quality service to its customers. Though there are others payment gateways eSewa has become the first choice due to its goodwill. eSewa has more than twenty five thousands of customers with sixty five percent of active customers.

eSewa - Type of Application 

eSewa is available in two modules: B2B and B2C.
                                                           eSewa specializes in Secure Real-time transaction processing service and support. eSewa online payment gateway performs payment authorization and authentication, and makes settlement of funds between Banks, Merchant and User(Customer).
Currently, it provides the following online services:

1. Sending and Receiving Money
2. Payment of Utility Bills
3. Purchase of Air Tickets and Movie Tickets
4. Purchase of Recharge and Calling Cards
5. Payment of School and College Bills
6. Payment of Internet Service Bills
7. Subscription of Newspapers and Magazines
8. Payment of Credit Card Bills
9. Facility of all eSewa services through mobile phone

Advantages of eSewa
 
1. Full 24x7x365 convenience
2. Rapid and efficient transaction processing
3. Multiple payment options
4. Secure flow of transaction details among buyers, sellers and financial institutions
5. Flexible and powerful real time report generation
6. Facility for customer refund
7. Merchants can get rid of large databases, extensive processing and complex software
 8. CA (Certifying Authority) authenticated secure servers
9. Ability to provide value added services to merchants, acquiring and issuing banks.

Market of eSewa 
                                                                         eSewa is an online payment gateway with hosted wallet as Nepal’s first online payment gateway in order to foster the e-commerce and also to bring the financial services to the unbanked sector as well.
                                                                          Currently, there are 21 major banks and financial institutions of Nepal in eSewa Network, a customer base of 1,20,000 and more than 800 Merchant partners. It can be basically accessed by two modes: web and mobile. eSewa Mobile application is a sms based application for mobile devices.





Partner Merchants

1. APCA Nepal
2. BhatBhateniOnline
3. BIG Movies
4. Birthday Forest
5. Broadlink
6. Buddha Air
7. Bus Nepal
8. Classic Tech
9. Colors Mobile
10. Dish Home
11. FCube Cinemas
12. Mytrip2nepal
13. Ncell
14. Nepal Electricity Authority
15. Nepal Telecom
16. QFX Cinemas
17. Radius Communications
18. ShareSansar
19. Smart Cell
20. Vianet Communications
21. Western Union
22. WorldLink
23. Yeti Airlines


Partner Banks

1. Ace Development Bank Limited
2. Business Universal Development Bank Limited
3. Citizens Bank International Limited
4. Clean Energy Development Bank Limited
5. Commerz and Trust Bank Nepal Limited
6. Everest Bank Limited
7. Global IME Bank Limited
8. Janata Bank Nepal Limited
9. Kailash Development Bank Limited
10. Kist Bank Limited
11. Kumari Bank Limited
12. Nepal Bangladesh Bank Limited
13. Nabil Bank Limited
14. Nepal Credit and Commerce Bank Limited
15. NIC Asia Nepal Bank Limited
16. NMB Bank Limited
17. Prabhu Bikas Bank Limited
18. Purnima Bikas Bank Limited
19. Rastriya Banijya Bank Limited
20. Siddhartha Development Bank Limited
21. Sunrise Bank Limited
22. Tinau Development Bank Limited
23. Tourism Development Bank Limited
24. Triveni Bikas Bank Limited
25. Yeti Development Bank Limited

Major Components of eSewa:

 1. Customer 
                                                                    People from all age group, from a small kid to an old woman, as they shop are all feasible customers of eSewa. But it requires you to identify you yourself to make any payments, so they do assume and target out customers to be at least young enough to understand the payment system and its flow.

Customer Types

a. Basic Customer – General Service Access
                                                                   The customers who have been registered through web/mobile and availability of limited information to us are categorized as ‘General Service Access’ customers or basic customers

b. Standard Customer
                                                                   All Service Access After the customer verifies his/her photo identification document, the customer is upgraded with ASA authority. They will have unlimited transaction and access to all the services of eSewa.

c. Zone Customer
                                                                    Agent Authentication Access Customers can upgrade themselves to become AAA customers and can be referred as eSewa agents. They will have to submit their business documents and fill up a form designed for the agent request. Agents will be eligible to apply to verify customers for eSewa.

2. Merchants
                                                                       Merchants are another major component of eSewa as it their goods and services that are up for sale. They have the key role to perform and eSewa efforts them to enlist their participation in the system. Any business that is physically or virtually operating is eligible to become Merchant in eSewa, if it falls under the rule and regulation of the government of Nepal and agrees to receive payment online.

3. Partner Banks 
                                                                          Partner banks play the major role in eSewa as they are behind the scene to hold the actual transaction of any payment process. eSewa is just virtual representation of the transaction that actually occurs amongst the settlement bank and the partner banks. As a bank cannot acquire all the merchants nor it can entertain all its customers to pay all the merchants, eSewa provides a common platform to share the merchants and customer payments in Nepal.

Technical Analysis of eSewa
                                                                   eSewa is a safer and easier way to pay. A customer can use their credit card/Bank account with eSewa, and get all the benefits - without exposing their bank account/card number. Customer's financial security is of the highest priority of eSewa.
                                                                    As eSewa is aimed to allow payments and money transfers to be made through internet, all the access channels have been secured at software, hardware and network level. The simple principle behind it is use of encryption software at transport layer to make financial transfer between the computers.
                                                                       eSewa uses SSL technology to keep information safe. Each and every transactions are notified to the user via email or SMS. In addition, when customer sends payment using eSewa, the recipient won't receive sensitive financial information like your credit card or bank account number. It is a form of direct payments and banking without physical appearance at the MDA or Bank through the means of electronic, interactive communication channels and other technology infrastructure.

 eSewa –Availability 
                                                                  With the massive increasing mobile users in Nepal, eSewa provides the only payment gateway for various transactions. Now using the eSewa app, available for all mobile platforms including Android, iPhone, Java and Blackberry, eSewa service users can make payments to various merchants and Service Providers, transfer money with simple gestures from their phone. eSewa Mobile applications is SMS based, for outreach of broader user base.

                                                                Although eSewa request can be enquired by SMS, the eSewa application adds the advantage by freeing users from remembering syntaxes, and provides the ready to add/edit templates for quick and easy operations. eSewa Mobile application provides almost all service that an eSewa user can get via its web module. eSewa mobile applications are changing the face of the money as we see today. With the growing numbers of users every day, eSewa plans big for Nepali market, and international market.

eSewa -Challenges
                                                                  The challenges that eSewa must deal are mainly government regulations and limited use of electronic payment in Nepal. In Nepal credit card payment has not yet emerged. Although, few banks provide credit card facility, people do not use credit card. It may be because credit card cannot be used for international purchase due to government policies. Since, Nepal is receiving only country it has been difficult for eSewa to establish itself internationally. On the other side, people prefer hand cash than the digital cash.

Conclusion 
                                                                        eSewa has evolved as a dynamic and interactive platform for electronic payment. It has changed the way of payment, gradually replacing the traditional way of payment. It is expected that the way eSewa is emerging will definitely serve the people ensuring more security, reliability and efficiency in the coming days. eSewa is the safer, easier method to pay online. With more than 250 merchants, and increasing each day, it provides power to the customers. It is secure as the Bank Account/Credit Card numbers are never exposed to the seller, 100% protection against any unauthorized payments sent from the users’ account and every purchase confirmed with an email receipt. Similarly, it is also convenient because it assures fast transactions through checkout with one account and uses the concept of one password across hundreds of online shopping sites.