PPOB 101: What Is It and How Does It Work?

Adult life is full of exciting opportunities and life enchantments, but there’s one thing that you must do every month without fail: pay your bills. Before the availability of the fast-enough internet connection, people had to visit various offices, wait in a queue, just to pay their bills one at a time. This tough is quickly becoming a thing of the past with the advent of PPOB. Pardon the cliche, but the wait is over. This wonder of billing is also an exciting business prospect for those who could use an additional income stream.

What is PPOB?

Definition of PPOB - Payment Point Online Bank is an all-in-one solution designed to simplify recurring payments such as electricity, internet, phone, and water bills. It’s a prominent business in Indonesia, as it helps people to pay all their bills under one roof, or one PPOB stand. But wouldn’t it be easier to pay all those bills online via e-commerce or mobile banking services? Yes, definitely! But a subset of the Indonesian population would feel more comfortable visiting a registered PPOB address.

A single individual can operate PPOB as a business as the process is simple and doesn’t take much effort. Customers can go to a PPOB kiosk or stand and pay their utility bills, credit card bills, health insurance, gst registration, or even purchasing a plane or train ticket. PPOB makes all these possible. It’s now convenient, simple, and, most of all, inclusive for everyone.

How Does PPOB Work?

Benefits of PPOB works offline and online, where all the data is stored and processed digitally, but the transaction itself is done manually. Most PPOB customers pay with cash, though it’s recommended that PPOB operators prepare a payment gateway to support online transactions. A registered business address is required.

The operator must input all the data into the server and pay using the deposit money. Then, the customer will pay with their preferred method to the operator. Hence, the operator should regularly deposit money to keep the business running.

So how can PPOB owners or operators get their revenues? For each transaction, the PPOB owner will earn a commission. Depending on the vendor, you can get a 1%-5% commission from each transaction. It’s a good side hustle that doesn’t require much money to start, and there are few competitors to be worried about.

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What Makes PPOB Possible?

To run a PPOB business, you need a stable internet connection, a printer, a business space and a laptop or a smartphone. There’s another thing that you should prepare if you want to grow your PPOB business. Behind the convenience that it offers customers in terms of billing, there’s an open API that makes PPOB possible.

An embedded finance API from Ayoconnect can help you kickstart a PPOB operation. It provides a one-stop PPOB solution with instant access to over 3.000 digital product categories (e.g., e-wallet top-ups, electricity tokens, mobile bills) and one-time integration. Have many customers to serve? Don’t worry; the open API from Ayoconnect can automatically disburse multiple digital product transactions in one go.

Why should you Provide PPOB Services?

Anyone can do it, and most people need it. If you happen to live in the suburbs or residential area, you can open up a PPOB business right at home. Your neighbors will become your customers, and they will at the very least make one monthly transaction.

Your PPOB services can help your customers buy mobile data when needed. Instead of going to the nearest ATM, they can go to a PPOB down the road. Thanks to Ayoconnect’s API, the process is much simpler. Just type in the customer billing ID, and all the payment details will be shown. All you need to do next is print out the payment receipt.

Those who are looking for additional income should consider providing PPOB services. Thanks to the open API, you can provide solutions to simplify recurring payments such as electricity, internet, phone, and water bills through PPOB. These days, there are many PPOB providers that you can just call up if you’re interested in managing one.

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