The latest winner of the „Estonia’s Best E-service“ contest is TransferWise, a provider of international payments and currency exchange services. The winner was announced at the information society conference.
According to Katri Ristal, chairwoman of the jury of “Estonia’s Best E-Service” contest, TransferWise won both in the category of e-commerce and in the overall category. “TransferWise is a startup created by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann that enables to make international currency transactions without having to pay banks every single time a service fee or conversion fee,” said Ristal, adding that the service has large worldwide market.
TransferWise received the award in Tallinn from Peter A. Bruck, head of World Summit Awards, a worldwide contest of e-services, who also invited the winner to the international contest.
The entertainment category of „Estonia’s Best E-service 2013“ contest was won by the internet environment of TipTheAuthors which allows legal downloading of Estonian and foreign movies and music. The category of e-culture was won by web game Ennemuistne; the category of e-governance was won by the e-border queue system; and the category of e-involvement was won by Hooandja, a joint funding project for creative projects.
According to Katri Ristal, a total of 77 entries were submitted for the entry. She added that while the level of this year’s winners was very high, in some categories, such as in e-education and e-health, prizes were not awarded.
The objective of “Estonia’s Best E-service” contest was to introduce innovative e-services and e-solutions, as well as their customers and producers in the public, private and non-profit sector. Services and solutions could be submitted by service providers and by software developers who are involved in developing such services.
Estonia’s Best E-service 2013 is managed by the State Information System’s Authority. The contest is funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the EU Structural Funds’ programme “Raising public awareness about the information society” and co-organised by BDA Consulting OÜ and KPMS & Partnerid OÜ. The objective of the EU Structural Funds programme “Raising public awareness about the information society” is to increase the usability of current electronic solutions, promote the creation of new e-services and notify people on the safe use of computers. The activities of the program will be carried out by the State Information System’s Authority in 2007–2013. The total volume of the program is approximately EUR 3.7 million and it is financed from the European Regional Development Fund.
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Photos: TransferWise & “Ennemuistne”
