Oink is a payment enabler that allows children to safely make purchases online or in-store while keeping parents in control of all aspects of spending.
Company history
REGO Payment Architectures, Inc. initially launched in 2008 as a product of Moggle Inc., located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founder Jo Webber and co-founder Pradeep Ittycheria created Virtual Piggy to provide a safe way for children to transact online. It became a publicly traded company in October 2008. In March 2011, the Virtual Piggy service was awarded the TRUSTe Children’s Privacy Seal, and was certified COPPA compliant. March 2012 saw founder and chairman Jo Webber take on the role of CEO. The company relocated to Hermosa Beach, California in June 2012. In Fall 2011, the company dropped the Moggle Inc. name, and became Virtual Piggy, Inc. It was publicly traded at the symbol VPIG. The technology is COPPA-compliant, The company has been featured in many articles as the first company to digitize a teen's monthly allowance. Forbes referred to the service as "PayPal for Kids". Oink is notable for being the first, and currently the only service that enables transactions for under-13 users that are COPPA-compliant. This means the service is the only way for someone 12 or younger to make an online purchase without violating these laws regulated by the FTC, which heavily restrict which personal information a company is permitted to collect from a child. Because Oink's checkout process only requires the child to provide a username and password to check out, these issues are avoided, keeping the process safe. Oink is the only COPPA-compliant payment technology designed to allow retailers and game publishers to reach under-21 consumers in a safe, legal and effective manner. On January 28, 2014, Oink announced that over one million users have signed up for their family wallet solution to shop safely, and securely online. On November 21, 2014, Oink announced the launch of their prepaid card on the Discover Network - allowing parents to control their children's in-store spending as well. The notability of this technology was recognized by Frost & Sullivan, who gave Virtual Piggy their 2012 Entrepreneurial Company of the Year award in Digital Media. As of December 4, 2013, the name of the Virtual Piggy youth payments solution changed to Oink. The corporate name remains as Virtual Piggy.
Functionality
REGO Payment Architectures, Inc.'s service works by allowing a parent to register an account, which can then set up parameters for child accounts. Because the parent account stores all personal information, a child is able to make a purchase without providing any of their personal information. A parent first registers their own account. The parent can then assign individual child accounts to multiple children. Within each child account, the parent is able to control how much money is available to the child, how often they receive new funds, which merchants the child is allowed to buy from, and any desired spending limits. The parent is also able to "turn off" the child accounts, and request notifications when purchases are made. The child is able to log into their account, which tracks recent purchases, funds available, savings goals and charitable donations. In June 2015, Oink updated their app to include P2P payments functionality between users and family and friends.
User experience
Upon checkout, the child chooses the Oink payment option. The child is then prompted to enter their Oink username and password. If there are sufficient funds in the account, and the purchase matches the parameters set up by the parent, the transaction is completed. Because the child never provides any personally identifiable information as a part of the purchase process, the transaction is COPPA compliant. The merchant is able to ship any physical items to the child using the mailing address provided in the parent account.
