[ICO] Ubcoin Market and Samsung: a beautiful friendship

Already 10 years of partnership

The story of Ubank's collaboration, a universal mobile payment service created in 2009, and the world's largest maker of mobile phones began even earlier, in 2007. At that time, a team of software engineers headed by Felix Khachatryan launched Navifon, an innovative application that became the first to successfully implement a complete automotive navigation system for mobile devices ... while Yandex and Google still offered 2D maps to their customers, Navifon used 3D maps provided by Navteq. Since 2007, Navifon has been pre-installed on more than one million Samsung phones equipped with GPS (which was rare at the time). For two months, customers were able to use the app for free, after which they were offered a subscription.

The second step of the collaboration was the pre-installation of uTalk, a universal mobile app to communicate on all social media platforms and messengers. This application has transformed Samsung's devices from simple phones into real smartphones. For this reason, the company has strongly promoted uTalk. Since 2010, the application has been preinstalled on more than 20 million Samsung devices.

In the early 2010s, the team behind Navifon and uTalk began to focus on fintech, which gave birth to Ubank. The application allows its users to transfer money, pay for goods, services and other financial transactions with all their bank cards collected in one place. In 2013, Ubank received an investment of $ 8 million from the Runa Capital fund and - you guessed it - negotiated the pre-installation of the app on all Samsung smartphones sold in Russia and other post-USSR countries.

The Ubank course was not easy. Many banks dreamed of having access to Samsung's audience, as the company has always been considered a premium brand in the mobile phone market. However, Ubank has won this market with two significant benefits.

• First, the partnership already established, and
• secondly, the universal aggregation model solution

Ubank does not offer its own banking product, but groups all customer cards in a single interface . Thus, having chosen Ubank, Samsung has made sure to avoid some unfortunate scenarios involving customers of a bank buying a Samsung smartphone and finding a pre-installed application from another bank.

The Ubank app counts on its 2.5 million active users and is one of the leaders in the mobile payments market in Eastern Europe. The success is not surprising because the solution adapts to the specific needs of consumers in this area of ​​the globe. In Russia and most other countries, one person has an average of 3-4 bank cards. Therefore, an instrument to check the balance of all cardsand to make quick transactions could only find a wide audience. Samsung users have also given positive feedback. There are surely a number of customers who do not like the concept of a pre-installed application. However, most customers take into account that if the manufacturer offers a default application, it means that it is quality and reliable.

"Our partnership with Samsung is a unique story," said Felix Khachatryan, CEO of Ubank.

"It is unique not only because the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer has been working with us for more than 10 years now, but also because it catalyzes our experiences: at Ubank we have always been one of the first to implement and support all leading technology solutions like Samsung Pay and try new products like online smartphone insurance. The main factor that this support is still there is that our application is always preinstalled on all Samsung smartphones, while this kind of opportunity is not given to any other - even the most important - of the Russian fintech market. It means a lot. "

Ubank goes to blockchain: welcome UbCoin

The decision to develop a Blockchain platform has become a logical manifestation of Ubank's desire to continue growing and expanding globally. For products like Ubank, it is impossible to penetrate other domestic markets in the context of traditional financial institutions. Prior to Ubank's launch in Russia, the company had negotiated extensively with each service provider, aggregator, acquirer, and so on. The only solution was to use Blockchain technologies, which enabled the distribution of its product and effectively bypassed existing borders and financial institutions.

As a result, the Ubank team started the development of the Blockchain platform called Ubcoin Market. The Blockchain platform comes in the same way as buying / selling platforms like eBay. In early April, the Ubank team launched his sale of chips. Ubcoin Market bridges the gap between cryptocurrency and the real world. For example, those who do not have cryptocurrencies will be able to sell goods or services in exchange for cryptocurrency . And those who own cryptocurrencies will be able to easily spend their funds.

Ubank has already planned its global expansion strategy. After the completion of the chip sale and the development of Ubcoin Market, the Blockchain platform will be integrated with Ubank and, as a first step, will become available to the 2.5 million active users of the application . Ubank will then penetrate new domestic markets by offering Ubcoin Market functionality to foreign customers. One of the main promising factors of the strategy is the support provided by Samsung, a company that understands of course the enormous potential of decentralized technologies. In the future, Ubank will always be preinstalled on all Samsung smartphones with Ubcoin Market .

Strategically target the Asian market

According to various sources, it is estimated that Asian countries extract about 70% of the total volume of new cryptocurrencies. Asia is home to the world's most populous countries, which have seen a major technological leap in recent history. Asian tech companies are the world leaders in Blockchain innovation and dApps (decentralized application). Finally, the cultural traditions of many Asian countries welcome the exchange of goods and services among peers, whose attitudes and habits are also transferable to the online sphere. All these factors combined create an extremely fertile ground for the massive adoption of trade in "goods against cryptocurrency" such as the Ubcoin marketplace.

Ubcoin Market will enable many people across Asia to access cryptocurrency investment by bypassing the traditional barriers of fiat-to-crypto conversion . As for smartphone manufacturers, who are constantly exploring ways to make their devices indispensable for added value for the consumer, they may want to pre-install an app like Ubcoin to enhance their own value proposition.

The Ubcoin Marketplace project reflects this assessment of the potential of the Asian market. UbCoin token holders are mainly targeted for South Korea, Indonesia and China. This is consistent with the company's development strategy and expansion, which sees the South Korean and Southeast Asian markets as top priorities for the launch of the crypto-for-merchandise market in Southeast Asia. only a few months this year.