March 29, 2024
Today at
02:30
The Estonian login app Smart ID wants to challenge its extremely popular competitor Itsme on the Belgian business market in the coming months. ‘Companies need a backup in case Itsme were to fail.’
More than 7 million Belgians use Itsme today to log in to government services and companies, to identify themselves or to digitally sign documents. But Kalev Pihl, the CEO of the Estonian specialist in identification technology and digital signing SK ID Solutions, does not hesitate to compete with the Belgians.
In the coming months, SK ID Solutions wants to launch its own login app, Smart ID, in our country. With this app, which for end users is not much different from that of Itsme, the Estonians are targeting business customers who do not yet have their own login method or who are looking for a backup system for Itsme.
At the same time, Smart ID also says it charges companies ‘competitive prices’ for its services. “Our pricing policy is certainly simpler than Itsme’s,” says Pihl. Smart ID targets companies in the financial and medical sectors, as well as online gambling companies. They are increasingly relying on electronic identification to pay customers and check the age of site visitors.
Baltic states
To realize these Belgian ambitions, the Estonians will collaborate with Trust1Team, a company from Merelbeke. Today, it already supplies identification systems behind the scenes to companies and government institutions. The banking group Belfius and the Flemish government, among others, rely on Trust1Team’s technology.
Smart ID parent SK ID Solutions is no novice in the field of digital identification. The group was founded in 2001 by the Swedish banks Swedbank and SEB, and by the telecom company Telia Eesti from Estonia.
Since then, the group has grown into the market leader in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. According to Pihl, about 3.5 million people use Smart ID today. The fact that SK ID Solutions is now venturing outside the Baltic for the first time is largely thanks to eIDAS. This is a new European regulation that should make uniform digital authentication possible for all European citizens.
Itsme also responds to these European regulations. The Belgian group, which made a profit for the first time last year, announced earlier this month that it is explicitly aiming for growth abroad. After Itsme has already become active in France, Spain and Italy in recent months, it also wants to start in Scandinavia.
