Visa launches 'Everywhere Initiative' for startups in China

China has become the second country after the United States to roll out Visa Inc's "The Everywhere Initiative", an innovation and marketing solutions contest for startups.

Participants have been asked to create plans for Visa to drive digital commerce, inspire millennials and further incentivize loyalty-reward programs.

Starting from March 31, interested startups can sign up and submit their solutions to Visa China on how to address digital marketing and communications challenges.

A winning team will be selected respectively for each theme and be awarded $25,000, which will be used to implement their ideas with Visa.

Contestants will have six weeks to prepare their proposals.

The finalists will be announced on May 23. After a public presentation of their solutions, the winning teams will be announced on June 8 and their projects will start execution one month later.

According to Visa China, the contest has been created to address the increasingly complex and diversified global market, as well as the sheer amount of information bombarding consumers daily.

Organizers said they have come to realize that effectively targeting their audience and conveying their brand messages have become an important task for corporates.

Those taking part in the contest will develop, they said, meaningful and innovative marketing solutions to cater to the changing needs of consumers as well as the market.

Visa launched its first "The Everywhere Initiative" contest in the US last year, receiving 398 proposals.

According to Shirley Yu, country manager of Visa China, this year's contest will be divided into three main themes: Reaching the younger generation, increasing cardholder loyalty and driving cross-border e-commerce, the three most pressing current trends in the market.

Young people living in third- and fourth-tier cities are Visa's target customers, she said.

Even though the financial and payment cards company has become a well established brand in the country's biggest cities, the name should be better known in lower-tier cities and among younger people who are increasing their spending.

In terms of cardholder loyalty, Yu said that they would like to see participants come up with solutions, which can connect Visa and consumers in their daily lives.

The rapidly developing cross-border e-commerce market is one area where Visa already enjoys the advantage of having an extensive global payment network, she said, covering both physical stores and online platforms.

But what they would like to see from these contestants are more creative and convenient payment ways, which will help Visa become the first choice for Chinese consumers shopping on cross-border platforms.

According to William Bao Bean, managing director of startup incubator China Accelerator, the contest will not only bring in fresh ideas to large corporates, but also provide opportunities for startups who can find it hard to source early-stage financing.

shijing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 04/14/2016 page14)