Martin Ott from Moneybookers speaks about himself, system and Bulgaria

Martin Ott, managing director at London-based online payment services provider Moneybookers, started his career in 2000 in Tokyo, working on a user-generated opinion-sharing site in the mould of consumer journalism pioneer Epinions. It was in Japan that Ott became an advocate of mobile services, which prompted his next career move.

“I joined Jamba Jamster, creating content services for Vodafone Live,” he said. Jamster offers online betting, gaming and dating services, and in 2006 made close to £300m in sales.

Jamster’s success reflects the recent rapid growth of mobile commerce in general a trend that Moneybookers, which offers e-payment services to businesses and consumers, is determined to capitalise on.

When Ott joined the company last summer, Moneybookers was in the middle of a major IT restructuring programme in an effort to cut costs and boost efficiency. This initiative saw the firm move its IT functions to Sofia in Bulgaria. Ott said the country has a lot to offer UK businesses.

“Bulgaria is only two hours ahead of the UK, and compared with some other offshoring destinations, it is a much better cultural fit. Also, thanks to its numerous universities, Bulgaria produces some very smart IT people, and it is still very cheap,” he added.

Ott said the firm tries hard to integrate its Bulgarian staff with its other teams. “Our chief technology officer is based over there, but he also sits on the board in London. Parts of his team are based over there, while other parts are based in the UK, and we make great efforts to foster a common work culture,” he said.

This internationalism is highly appropriate for a company that has to cope with numerious cultural and regulatory differences for supporting its online retail customers across various markets. For example, German shoppers tend to pay for goods in a different way to shoppers in the UK, mostly using direct debit payments, while in Poland there are some 21 different local financial systems. “We have had to make available some really different payment options, all of which are dedicated to different countries,” Ott said.

This ability to deal with payments in a wide number of locations is one of the firm’s biggest selling points, according to Ott. “Usually when a firm wants to move into a new location it has to enter into a number of different local deals and have separate solutions for all the different local payment options. With Moneybookers, you have a single solution, and we offer services in over 30 currencies.”

Given the nature of Moneybookers’ business, security is obviously a major priority. “We look at IP addresses [in transactions], we do real-time risk assessments, and we have a lot of internal security systems and algorithms,” Ott said.

One area that Ott expects to see a lot of growth in is micropayments, small financial transactions that may only involve a few pence. “Micropayments used to be a big buzzword, but it has never really been big business. Now though, with services like iTunes and the growth of Second Life-style virtual economies, we are definitely seeing a move towards it.”