…to Russians, cash is king, even online, and what makes this possible is the QIWI system which allows users to shop and pay bills without transmitting sensitive banking information or credit card numbers over the Internet. QIWI customers simply deposit their cash into an ATM-like machine and use it to make transactions.
QIWI was launched in 2004 and by 2013 had 169,000 terminals in Russia alone, more than double the number of any bank’s ATMs.