Subscribers of Globe Telecom Inc. can now buy virtual goods, over 1,000 game and applications from merchants around the world, using the carrier’s mobile wallet GCash starting next Wednesday (March 24, 2010). Within this year, they may be able to purchase online goods, such as books and music, and even all sorts of physical goods in the real world, using the e-wallet.

GCash provider G-Xchange Inc. (GXI) has partnered with BOKU, Inc., a global leader in mobile payments, to cover the community of BOKU’s merchant partners which includes over 190 carriers worldwide. “Later this year, GCASH users might be able to buy physical goods from any vendor,” confirmed Boku Senior Vice President for Business Development Paul McGuire.

To date, GCash, which carries a limit of P40,000, has 1.2 million Filipino users conducting P3.5 billion worth of transactions per month. “The Philippines is one of the richest markets in the world for mobile payments,” explained Rizza Maniego-Eala, GXI President. “Since 2004, GCash has been the widely used mobile payment method for online purchases in the country.”

Even Filipino farmers have transacted P5 billion via GCash over the last half decade after GXI partnered with 60 rural banks. “But the bulk of these transactions have been over the last 18 months, increasing as users awareness of the service increase,” she pointed out. Correspondingly, GXI has also increased its GCash outlets nationwide.

Now, they number 18,000 in all. Then last month, GXI forged the partnership with BOKU. “Their focus on mobile payments, specialized team, large merchant base and tier one investors makes them our perfect partner for providing GCash subscribers with the opportunity to purchase virtual goods from the international market,” the GXI President explained.

“This is a great model for mobile payments, enabling carriers to reach global merchants through BOKU’s network, expanding capabilities for online and physical purchases, while driving increased carrier revenues and reducing subscriber churn,” added Mark Britto, CEO of BOKU.

Mobile payments are easy, safe, fast and accessible by 4 billion people worldwide, BOKU officials noted. Hence, they help clients capture new markets, new demographics and new revenue. “And with average conversion rates of 50% (and up to 80% in some countries), it pays to go mobile with BOKU.”

Based in San Francisco with offices in Europe, Asia and Latin America, BOKU launched in June 2009. Already, it has shown tremendous growth in half a year, developing direct mobile payments service relationships with over 1,000 game and application developers, including almost all of the top applications for virtual goods and currencies purchased on Facebook.

BOKU’s mobile payment service, Paymo, is enabled across 190 carriers worldwide in over 60 countries, and reaches 1.8 billion customers. The company is funded by leading Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures.

Benchmark Capital, a leading venture capital firm, was founded in 1995 to help talented entrepreneurs with original ideas build successful technology companies. Its portfolio includes high-profile start-ups like Infinera, MySQL, OpenTable, PureDigital, Second Life, Tellme, Twitter, Yelp, and Zillow, and franchise companies such as eBay, Juniper Networks and Red Hat. The firm manages nearly $2.8 billion in committed venture capital.