New | Guzheng teacher Zou Lunlun accepts bitcoin in snub to banks and PayPal
Tired of bank and PayPal charges, music teacher Zou Lunlun has embraced bitcoin to accept payment from students worldwide
The cost of international banking for one small Hong Kong business has become so high that it has turned to the crypto-currency bitcoin for help in a snub to the financial system.
Zou Lunlun, founder of the International Academy for Musical Arts (IAMA) in North Point, is the first business to accept and receive bitcoins as an alternative payment method for her online music lessons. She introduced the service in September.
Teaching the whole world while at the same time accepting new technology for the internet is a big step forward
"I’m based in Hong Kong, but I teach internationally,” said Zou, who plays guzheng, or Chinese harp. “In the beginning, banking was done through banks, but they have big fees. After that, there were other platforms like PayPal, which became more convenient.”
When Zou, who has taught the instrument for 20 years, started conducting lessons on Skype for clients as far afield as Wellington, Vancouver and San Francisco, she found that extra banking fees could cost up to HK$330 – one-quarter of the tuition fee.
PayPal, as an alternative to banks, still asks senders to pay a series of charges, making the cost of sending payments equally expensive and unpredictable.
A 3.4 per cent fee is applied to the total money sent on credit cards, in addition to currency exchange and money transfer tax depending on what country the sender is from.
There are no such costs with bitcoin – although its volatility can make trading tricky – and Zou offers a 10 per cent discount to customers who use it. Now, 30 per cent of her international clients use the virtual currency.