Internet giant Yahoo last night launched an online payment service allowing US users to send money to family and friends in 182 countries.
Dickson Chu, general manager of the new service Yahoo PayDirect International, said it would revolutionise Internet person-to-person payment methods.
'Foreign born nationals living and working in the US that need to send money home can make their money go even farther, with rates well below many other money transfer methods,' he said.
The new venture puts Yahoo head-to-head with money transfer firms like Western Union.
The new service will allow users to obtain cash through some 800,000 automatic teller machines (ATMs) around the world through the Cirrus network.
After a sender makes an initial remittance, most likely over the web, a PayDirect card is sent to the recipient to allow withdrawal in local currency. Instead of using the card recipients can also collect funds at any of 60,000 MoneyGram international money transfer locations worldwide.
The service is slightly different from eBay's payment business called PayPal, which can be used to send money overseas by e-mail, but is primarily used to facilitate trades done on eBay's auction marketplace.
Yahoo said recipients worldwide would not need a PayDirect account, Internet access or even a local bank account to obtain their funds. The internet giant is looking for a slice of the global remittances market estimated to be worth up to $200 billion a year.
