NEW YORK CITY, July 3 (dbusiness.com) -- If Silicon Alley-based Planet Payment Inc. has it its way, Internet users across the globe one day would be able to make purchases from a foreign Website without resorting to a foreign dictionary, and have the purchase cost immediately translated to the local exchange.

The New York City start-up, which offers multi-currency, secure payment processing services and the creating and enabling of multilingual Internet sites, recently announced its latest partnership -- with Hong Kong's First ecom.com -- to further fuel its endeavor.

Having a multilingual Web site is no longer optional, according to Forrester Research. While Forrester's June 2000 report targeted U.S. companies with overseas interests, there already are a handful of companies dotting the horizon with services that assist merchants' transactions from both the U.S. and abroad.

Launched nine months ago, Payment Partner has signed on about 400 merchants in 40 countries, Christopher Richmond, manager of reseller programs, told dbusiness.com. Now with its strategic relationship with Hong Kong's First Ecom.com (Nasdaq: FECC, BSX, FECC BH), it adds another venue to reach Asian consumers.

First Ecom.com already has a wide network of banking partners around the world and serves merchants as well as consumers. Now it adds Planet Payment to its list of strategic partners that enable multiple currency transaction processing. First Ecom's list of partners includes Chinadotcom, Federal Express, Microsoft Corp., Oasis Technology, Sun Microsystems and Sybase.

An alliance that Payment Partner forged in May with Trintech Group was a large step in its plans to offer multi-currency credit card processing to banks around the world.

Currently, the U.S. accounts for slightly less than half of the world's Internet users. Visa, Mastercard and American Express, which are among Planet Payment's partners, are used for nearly 90 percent of credit card transactions, according to Catalog Age. Planet Payment has its eyes on the remaining 10 percent and already has added Japan's JCB card to its list.

Planet Payment currently handles 162 currencies, including 10 from Asia/Pacific.

The company, which also has offices in the British Virgin Islands and Scotland, opened the doors of its new Singapore office last week. According to Richmond, it also is looking at opening additional offices in Latin America and Central America, where "there is lot of interest in our services," he said.

Karen Lam covers the New York area for dbusiness.com. E-mail her with story ideas and comments.