Friday, 13 January 2012
Canada goes payment
Mobile payments explodes
PayPal expects to handle $7 billion in mobile payments volume in 2012
The $7 billion 2012 forecast was made by eBay CEO John Donahoe at the CES technology show in Las Vegas.
it comes after a breakthrough year for mobile shopping as PayPal hit $4 billion in mobile payment volume, a huge increase on the firm's original 2011 prediction of $1.5 billion and the $750 million in mobile payments captured in 2010.
Donahoe says the firm currently has more than 17 million PayPal customers regularly making a purchase through their mobile phone, up from the eight million reported in June.
Mobile shopping apps and tablets are expected to play a major role in driving adoption, he says.
Recent IBM Benchmark data indicates that 75% of shoppers this holiday season made purchases on their tablets, with the iPad driving the bulk of these transactions.
it comes after a breakthrough year for mobile shopping as PayPal hit $4 billion in mobile payment volume, a huge increase on the firm's original 2011 prediction of $1.5 billion and the $750 million in mobile payments captured in 2010.
Donahoe says the firm currently has more than 17 million PayPal customers regularly making a purchase through their mobile phone, up from the eight million reported in June.
Mobile shopping apps and tablets are expected to play a major role in driving adoption, he says.
Recent IBM Benchmark data indicates that 75% of shoppers this holiday season made purchases on their tablets, with the iPad driving the bulk of these transactions.
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Innovate and Integrate
Shoppers need new ways to save
money in 2012
As consumers continue to cut back on their spending during what is a
difficult time for the retail sector, there are calls for widespread adoption of
innovative techniques to keep the tills ringing. But according to retail
platform Shopow, all new features that are introduced should have the ultimate
goal of helping shoppers to discover deals, enhance their experience, and most
importantly, save money.
A new report from Verdict Research has predicted another tough year for retailers in 2012, with a growth rate predicted to be the third slowest for 40 years. As many consumers overspent at Christmas, the first few months of the year will be particularly difficult.
With £58.6 billion in consumer spending accounted for online in 2011; it is clear that 2012 will be a year where further developments will be made in Web 3.0 with many experts heralding the dawn of the "super digital consumer."
Many experts are suggesting that major digital and cultural consumer trends will converge in the coming year. The prevalence of mobile technology will be ever more obvious; it will be more intuitive and interactive than ever before and will operate as a shopping interface to everything beyond the virtual world. Retailers are clearly reacting to these consumer realities much more quickly; due both to the economic climate and the success that brand engagement has had online.
Ellen Flood, independent shopping expert from Shopow, said, "Pressures brought about by tight budgets are prompting retailers to consider new approaches to attracting shoppers. High street stores are now beginning to embrace interactive technology to create a more personal and involving shopping experience, in order to encourage the destination and experiential shopping that is currently somewhat lacklustre. The future for portable computing devices will be merely as a portal to other things, rather than as particularly desirable items in and of themselves. Either way, interactive technology will become even more all pervasive than it already is."
The advent of mobile technology has provided the shopper with far more product information and price information than ever before. M-commerce enables the high street shopper to compare prices on the go as they shop; through facilities like QR codes and in store price comparison apps. It's predicted that this idea, in the coming months, will facilitate the purchase of one item per second from mobile computing platforms – resulting in a massive growth rate during the course of the year.
Moreover, we are gradually moving into a cashless world – even though this has been claimed for the past 5 years – Google, MasterCard and PayPal are rolling out contactless mobile technology to make payment far easier with the ordinary smart phone operating as a credit card.
Ellen, said, "Stores that are embracing a multi-channel approach across mobile, online and in-store will be best placed to benefit from the latest innovations that include the integration of social media. Smart phones are beginning to function as a platform to get detailed product information on the go, seek out the best deals, take recommendations and actually buy the product with contactless technology."
A new report from Verdict Research has predicted another tough year for retailers in 2012, with a growth rate predicted to be the third slowest for 40 years. As many consumers overspent at Christmas, the first few months of the year will be particularly difficult.
With £58.6 billion in consumer spending accounted for online in 2011; it is clear that 2012 will be a year where further developments will be made in Web 3.0 with many experts heralding the dawn of the "super digital consumer."
Many experts are suggesting that major digital and cultural consumer trends will converge in the coming year. The prevalence of mobile technology will be ever more obvious; it will be more intuitive and interactive than ever before and will operate as a shopping interface to everything beyond the virtual world. Retailers are clearly reacting to these consumer realities much more quickly; due both to the economic climate and the success that brand engagement has had online.
Ellen Flood, independent shopping expert from Shopow, said, "Pressures brought about by tight budgets are prompting retailers to consider new approaches to attracting shoppers. High street stores are now beginning to embrace interactive technology to create a more personal and involving shopping experience, in order to encourage the destination and experiential shopping that is currently somewhat lacklustre. The future for portable computing devices will be merely as a portal to other things, rather than as particularly desirable items in and of themselves. Either way, interactive technology will become even more all pervasive than it already is."
The advent of mobile technology has provided the shopper with far more product information and price information than ever before. M-commerce enables the high street shopper to compare prices on the go as they shop; through facilities like QR codes and in store price comparison apps. It's predicted that this idea, in the coming months, will facilitate the purchase of one item per second from mobile computing platforms – resulting in a massive growth rate during the course of the year.
Moreover, we are gradually moving into a cashless world – even though this has been claimed for the past 5 years – Google, MasterCard and PayPal are rolling out contactless mobile technology to make payment far easier with the ordinary smart phone operating as a credit card.
Ellen, said, "Stores that are embracing a multi-channel approach across mobile, online and in-store will be best placed to benefit from the latest innovations that include the integration of social media. Smart phones are beginning to function as a platform to get detailed product information on the go, seek out the best deals, take recommendations and actually buy the product with contactless technology."
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Our payment solution provides you with an easy access to your payment data 24/7 with detailed transaction information. This enables you to analyse your business transactions anywhere, anytimeMonday, 9 January 2012
Startup's to watch
LevelUp/SCVNGR
While solutions such as Google Wallet try to introduce mobile payments through NFC technology at a time when there are few devices on the market that supports it, SCVNGR has launched a solution called LevelUp that works with any phone and any bank account. The app gives any merchant the ability to run a loyalty program that works similarly to the Starbucks App, which allows users to pay using a code displayed on their phone and collect reward points.
LevelUp users link any credit or debit card to their LevelUp accounts the same way that Starbucks links a gift card to its app. When they get to a LevelUp merchant, the app generates a unique QR code at the register that can be scanned with a merchant app to pay. Merchants can add rewards to LevelUp that are already waiting for customers the first time that they use the app, and customers earn free credit at that merchant every time they spend money there using the app.
Since launching in October, the app has signed up more than 100,000 users and has about 1,000 businesses. Meanwhile, T-Mobile has helped deploy more than 2,500 docking stations that stand in for the merchant app as a scanning mechanism at checkout counters. It’s a modest start, but LevelUp has all of the ingredients to become more widespread than competing mobile payment options.
Dwolla
Let’s be frank: transferring money through social networks sounds shady. Which is what makes it impressive that Dwolla, a payments startup that makes transfers through Twitter, Facebook, SMS and other virtual channels, was processing $1 million per day less than a year after launch.
Dwolla’s 70,000 users make payments through Twitter, Facebook, SMS and other virtual channels by connecting their bank accounts to their Dwolla accounts. The service integrates with social networks to alert payment recipients there is money waiting for them in their own Dwolla accounts that can be transferred to their bank account. Payments of up to $10 are free and anything larger costs $0.25 — which is cheaper than paying a credit card fee.
In December, the company launched a new feature called Instant that lets users pay on up to $5 of credit while waiting for bank transfers from their accounts, making this process instant.
Sunday, 8 January 2012
Collective POS Launches Mobile Payment Solution for Apple, Blackberry and Android Smartphone Devices
Collective Point of Sale Solutions, a Canadian provider of payment processing services, has launched VirtualMerchant Mobile, a mobile P.O.S solution that allows small and medium-sized businesses to process credit card payments using an existing smartphone device.
To set up, merchants who have been approved for credit card processing download an application from the relevant app store and enter the account information provided to them by Collective POS.
VirtualMerchant Mobile includes both hardware and software features to ensure complete end-to-end transaction security. To protect merchants and cardholders, no payment information is stored on the mobile device. At the time of swipe, card data is encrypted through the provided card encryption sleeve and immediately sent to a firewall-protected, secure hosting environment.
“This solution is perfect for taxi and livery services, companies that offer delivery, participate in trade shows or flea markets, home-based businesses and any other business that wishes to accept credit cards on the go,” said Michael Back.
In addition to portability and information security, VirtualMerchant Mobile offers the reliability that is synonymous with all Collective POS offerings, making it an ideal solution for any on-the-go business or service.
Collective POS serves more than 10,000 businesses across Canada, including retail stores, restaurants, hospitality providers, mobile services, e-commerce merchants, mail order/telephone order businesses, professional firms/clinics/practitioners, B2B product/service providers, tradespeople and many other industries.
Source: Collective Point of Sale Solutions, Ltd.
Friday, 6 January 2012
Starbucks launches pay by app for iPhone users in the UK
US international coffee company Starbucks has added pay by app capabilities to enable UK iPhone users to pay for drinks with their phones.
Starbucks customers will be able to scan a unique barcode on their iPhones at the till so that their accounts can be charged. The app, however, does not allow users to either pre-order or specify their drinks electronically.
The service is available to owners of Starbucks' loyalty card, and synchronises their account and balance information with their iPhone so they are charged the correct amount. Furthermore, the app’s loyalty scheme allows customers to qualify as gold level members to get free drinks.
In December 2011, Starbucks saw the number of transactions carried out via its mobile channel exceed 26 million since the beginning of 2011 when its mobile payments program was launched.
Starbucks customers will be able to scan a unique barcode on their iPhones at the till so that their accounts can be charged. The app, however, does not allow users to either pre-order or specify their drinks electronically.
The service is available to owners of Starbucks' loyalty card, and synchronises their account and balance information with their iPhone so they are charged the correct amount. Furthermore, the app’s loyalty scheme allows customers to qualify as gold level members to get free drinks.
In December 2011, Starbucks saw the number of transactions carried out via its mobile channel exceed 26 million since the beginning of 2011 when its mobile payments program was launched.
Cashless Lagos
Central Bank of Nigeria enlists Ingenico as 'cashless Lagos' experiment begins
Last year the central bank set out a range of policies designed to wean the country off expensive and risky cash in favour of electronic money, arguing that the dominance of paper has big cash management, security and money laundering implications.
Lagos State is acting as the testing ground for the policy, and citizens will now face a daily cumulative limit of N150,000 for cash withdrawals and deposits with corporations told to stick to a limit of N1000,000.
However, the charges levied for exceeding these amounts will not come into force until 31 March amid concern and confusion over the plans, with the central bank also issuing a statement clarifying that it is trying to reduce, not eliminate, paper money.
The CBN argues that it wants: "To drive development and modernisation of our payment system in line with Nigeria's vision 2020 goal of being amongst the top 20 economies by the year 2020. An efficient and modern payment system is positively correlated with economic development, and is a key enabler for economic growth."
To help make electronic payments more accessible, CBN has selected French vendor Ingenico for the provision of point-of-sale terminals. Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa, First Bank, First City Monument Bank, Oceanic Bank and Unity Bank have between them already purchased 14,000 Ingenico machines for deployment this year. As the project is expanded to the rest of Nigeria, Ingenico claims it could end up supplying hundreds of thousands of terminals over the next four years.
Gansirey Seck, MD, Ingenico Nigeria, says: "Ingenico is very pleased with the success obtained in a short timeframe in Nigeria. Taking customers beyond conventional payment through value added services on the POS will greatly contribute to the sustainable development of electronic payment in Nigeria."
Lagos State is acting as the testing ground for the policy, and citizens will now face a daily cumulative limit of N150,000 for cash withdrawals and deposits with corporations told to stick to a limit of N1000,000.
However, the charges levied for exceeding these amounts will not come into force until 31 March amid concern and confusion over the plans, with the central bank also issuing a statement clarifying that it is trying to reduce, not eliminate, paper money.
The CBN argues that it wants: "To drive development and modernisation of our payment system in line with Nigeria's vision 2020 goal of being amongst the top 20 economies by the year 2020. An efficient and modern payment system is positively correlated with economic development, and is a key enabler for economic growth."
To help make electronic payments more accessible, CBN has selected French vendor Ingenico for the provision of point-of-sale terminals. Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa, First Bank, First City Monument Bank, Oceanic Bank and Unity Bank have between them already purchased 14,000 Ingenico machines for deployment this year. As the project is expanded to the rest of Nigeria, Ingenico claims it could end up supplying hundreds of thousands of terminals over the next four years.
Gansirey Seck, MD, Ingenico Nigeria, says: "Ingenico is very pleased with the success obtained in a short timeframe in Nigeria. Taking customers beyond conventional payment through value added services on the POS will greatly contribute to the sustainable development of electronic payment in Nigeria."
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
US Migration to EMV Chip Technology
Find out why the US is finally ready to join the rest of the world and implement EMV into it's borders.
Most of the world has fully migrated or is in the process of migrating to EMV chip technology for debit and credit payments. According to EMVCo, approximately 1.2 billion EMV cards have been issued globally and 18.7 million POS devices accept EMV cards as of Q1 2011. This represents 40.1 percent of the total payment cards in circulation and 71 percent of the POS devices installed globally [EMVCO2011].Given the prevalence of EMV chip technology in the rest of the world, many have questioned if and when the United States would move to EMV. U.S. financial institutions started issuing EMV chip cards to their frequently traveling customers; however the country seemed to be a long way off from acceptance [Gemalto2011]. All of this changed on August 9, 2011 when Visa announced plans to speed up chip migration and adoption of mobile payments in the United States. Visa announced a three-part acceleration plan [Visa2011]:
- Expand the Technology Innovation Program to Merchants in the U.S.
- Build Processing Infrastructure for Chip Acceptance
- Establish a Counterfeit Fraud Liability Shift
Click here to download a free copy of The Migration to EMV Chip Technology by Gemalto white paper.
Biometrics in Banking
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Tuesday, 3 January 2012
To Be or NFC that is the question
At the end of 2010, the predictions made by Forrester were that Near Field Communication (NFC) would start to come into its own in 2011, though they had noted that it would be far from mainstream by the close of this year.
Now that it’s a year later, the predictions are starting to come in for next year, and this year’s use of NFC is starting to be reexamined in order to make the forecasts. In 2011, it has been estimated that between 35 and 40 million smartphones enabled with NFC have been shipped worldwide. Many of the top mobile manufacturers shipped devices with NFC, though Apple is the most notable exception to that rule.
This has left many retailers wondering if it will be worth their while to invest in the point of sale (POS) reader products for NFC, considering that they can be very expensive, and the number of shoppers that use the technology may not be there yet. It is likely that this type of contactless payment service will take a few more years to become mainstream – though pilot programs are popping up here and there.
Equally, contactless payment is not the only benefit available from NFC. Currently, marketers believe that the true value to the technology is that occurring before and after the purchase of the product; for example, providing consumers with discount coupons, loyalty points, and other types of rewards relating to their purchase.
Friday, 30 December 2011
Twitter - SQUARE - Dorsey
Latinia, an independent software vendor (ISV), specialized in infrastructure products for asynchronous type corporate notifications (mobile or instant messaging, email, Twitter's DM, push notifications), has recently introduced the concept of 'tweet banking'. According to Oriol Ros, Marketing Director of Latinia "for many financial institutions today, talking with their clients through any channel they choose is a strategic maxim. That is why Twitter, in vogue and with impressive take-up speeds is now a priority channel, first for observation and then as a means to exploit communication and business."
As Ros says, "we should note that what we are talking about is not, at least from our end, of Twitter as an open-channel for corporate communication as is used universally today, albeit incipiently, with many initiatives." Latinia strictly proposes the use of Twitter as an alert channel, via direct messages (DM), where the convenience of the clients prevails, being able to choose which channel to use to receive status of their accounts, cash withdrawals, etc., whether via SMS, push-notes or Twitter. In Latinia we have called it 'tweet banking'. To this respect, Latinia has introduced the latest innovation of its infrastructure product LIMSP© during this past year, after the implementation of push notifications, working on opening to new asynchronous channels on its service delivery product line-up.
Twitter, will have - and really already has - a greater presence in financial institutions, but the majority only use this channel to transmit contents, principally Press Releases and other corporate information. This limitation is due to inertia and its own characteristics as a channel where the tendency is for open communications, something over which the brand has little control of. Latinia opens another means, as the company understands Twitter to be another channel of choice based on the axiom of getting personalized and relevant information to the client, over and above the specific technological limitations - 140 characters and, in the case of DM, a daily limit of sent messages. Such information is of private nature, which is why Latinia has chosen to work with DMs and not with open communications.
Moreover, Latinia talks of tweet banking as the company did of SMS Banking, e-mail banking, instant banking, etc., on their day. The unstoppable proliferation and fragmentation of channels to help the financial institutions manage their business is a challenge equal to the potential it represents, and moreover, Latinia is very comfortable working with asynchronous channels. Twitter is still, though less and less, associated with young users, indeed future banking clients, but similar to the 35-44 year-old band where the take-up is massive. With tweet banking Latinia proposes the use of this channel based on the unequivocal, private relationship between bank and client - it is enough for the latter to be a follower of the former-, enabling the sending of private and personalized contents, with no one else being privy to them.
For more than 10 years now, Latinia (created in 1999) has been focusing its efforts of innovation on discovering new possibilities offered by the so-called asynchronous channels, and in transforming simple events into notifications and subsequent multichannel messages (alerts). Using an onion as example, LIMSP© is adding layers of value to an initial core, thus transforming it into a business opportunity, converting each message into something unique for the customer, due to the relevance attached to the same and based upon the context in which it arises.
More information available through http://www.latinia.com/
SOURCE Latinia
As Ros says, "we should note that what we are talking about is not, at least from our end, of Twitter as an open-channel for corporate communication as is used universally today, albeit incipiently, with many initiatives." Latinia strictly proposes the use of Twitter as an alert channel, via direct messages (DM), where the convenience of the clients prevails, being able to choose which channel to use to receive status of their accounts, cash withdrawals, etc., whether via SMS, push-notes or Twitter. In Latinia we have called it 'tweet banking'. To this respect, Latinia has introduced the latest innovation of its infrastructure product LIMSP© during this past year, after the implementation of push notifications, working on opening to new asynchronous channels on its service delivery product line-up.
Twitter, will have - and really already has - a greater presence in financial institutions, but the majority only use this channel to transmit contents, principally Press Releases and other corporate information. This limitation is due to inertia and its own characteristics as a channel where the tendency is for open communications, something over which the brand has little control of. Latinia opens another means, as the company understands Twitter to be another channel of choice based on the axiom of getting personalized and relevant information to the client, over and above the specific technological limitations - 140 characters and, in the case of DM, a daily limit of sent messages. Such information is of private nature, which is why Latinia has chosen to work with DMs and not with open communications.
Moreover, Latinia talks of tweet banking as the company did of SMS Banking, e-mail banking, instant banking, etc., on their day. The unstoppable proliferation and fragmentation of channels to help the financial institutions manage their business is a challenge equal to the potential it represents, and moreover, Latinia is very comfortable working with asynchronous channels. Twitter is still, though less and less, associated with young users, indeed future banking clients, but similar to the 35-44 year-old band where the take-up is massive. With tweet banking Latinia proposes the use of this channel based on the unequivocal, private relationship between bank and client - it is enough for the latter to be a follower of the former-, enabling the sending of private and personalized contents, with no one else being privy to them.
About Latinia
Latinia is an independent software vendor (ISV), which specializes in infrastructure product development for asynchronous type corporate notifications (mobile or instant messaging, email, Twitter's DM, push notifications), utilized mainly by leading and distributed globally financial institutions institutions (banks, savings banks, processing and payment systems), public institutions, government and service providers, leaders in their respective segments and industries.For more than 10 years now, Latinia (created in 1999) has been focusing its efforts of innovation on discovering new possibilities offered by the so-called asynchronous channels, and in transforming simple events into notifications and subsequent multichannel messages (alerts). Using an onion as example, LIMSP© is adding layers of value to an initial core, thus transforming it into a business opportunity, converting each message into something unique for the customer, due to the relevance attached to the same and based upon the context in which it arises.
More information available through http://www.latinia.com/
SOURCE Latinia
2011- Review of the Year of Mobile Payments
'12/21/11' - James Wester - Mobile Payments Today
Obviously, that's not the case. Plastic is as prevalent as ever. But even though we haven't ditched real wallets for their mobile equivalents, a lot did happen in the world of mobile payments in 2011:
Starbucks
The story of mobile payments in 2011 begins with Starbucks and its ingenious mobile payment application. Eschewing fancy tech for relatively pedestrian barcodes at the point of sale, the Starbucks app is a tidy little mobile payment method that does what it does with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of utility. It's simple to use and fast at the point of sale - two qualities mobile payments will need to supplant cash and cards. Additionally, by making its mobile payments closed-loop, and keeping the transactions on its own systems, Starbucks didn't need to partner with a carrier or card brand to complicate things.
The app has become the early standard for mobile payment success and has demonstrated that customers will adopt mobile payments at the point of sale. Rolled out in January, the app was used for 3 million transactions in its first three months – and that was before it even had an Android version. In 11 months the app has now accounted for more than 26 million transactions at Starbucks locations across the U.S. It has been made available in Canada now and will be launched in the U.K. and Ireland in January.
Square
While Starbucks was letting customers pay with their mobile phones, Square was getting merchants paid with their mobile phones. With a streamlined app and clever credit card reader, Square solved a real problem for small businesses and made it simple for even the tiniest merchants to accept credit cards.
Gauging by Square's numbers, there were a lot of those tiny merchants looking for a solution. So far Square has registered over one million merchants and is processing around $11 million per day.
Square still has some issues to solve, most notably in encrypting transactions from end-to-end, but they get credit for making payments interesting in 2011. Add in Square's iPad-based cash register and mobile wallet solutions launched in May and you have a company that's rethinking the way merchants and customers interact at the point of sale. That may be why Square has wrapped up $137 million in funding, including investments from Visa and Sir Richard Branson, and has a valuation of $1 billion.
Start-ups
Square isn't the only start-up rethinking the way we pay for things. Another prime example is Dwolla, a Des Moines, Iowa-based mobile payment company. In March, Dwolla launched services aimed at getting consumers to give up their cards. Like Square, Dwolla wanted to end the byzantine rules and fees imposed on merchants by credit card companies. Its solution: get rid of credit cards altogether. Dwolla lets customers pay from prefunded accounts at the point of sale using a phone's GPS to place the customer in merchant locations. And all Dwolla charges is merchants is 25 cents for every transaction over $10, no complicated interchange tables and fees.
Other mobile payment start-ups entering the market this year include iZettle Cimbal, TabbedOut, PressPay and a host of others. It's more than likely that many, if not most, of these start-ups won't succeed in the long run. That's the nature of start-ups. (For instance, Bling Nation, a mobile payment start-up that garnered considerable attention last year, suspended its services in June to "reevaluate its business model.") But one of these companies may have just what it takes to cause a major disruption to payments and be the next PayPal.
PayPal
As for PayPal, 2011 witnessed its attempts to go from being only a provider of online payments to a player in the offline payment world. Ninety percent of retail in the U.S. is still carried out in "old-fashioned" brick-and-mortar stores, and PayPal is intent on getting a piece of those transactions.
In July, PayPal's president Scott Thompson predicted the demise of the physical wallet in 2015 and the company seems to be actively working towards making that happen. PayPal's parent company eBay made several acquisitions in the mobile payment space, most notably direct carrier biller Zong, and PayPal forged alliances with NCR and mFoundry to provide mobile banking and financial services. Additionally, PayPal unveiled an offline strategy to eventually allow retailers the ability to accept PayPal at their brick-and-mortar locatons. The company even opened a temporary store in Manhattan to show retailers just how its offline offerings will work.
The Card Brands
Mobile payments in 2011 hasn't been just about start-ups and disruption. As many of the mobile payment start-ups can attest, making a payment happen at the point of sale is no easy task and the major card brands - Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover - have a head start. 2011 showed that the card brands know the future is mobile and they were active in trying to extend their influence over that channel
American Express launched Serve, a mobile payment platform that offers offline, online and peer-to-peer payments. Visa released its own peer-to-peer platform and mobile payment strategy built around connecting mobile money programs in developing markets. MasterCard partnered on several mobile payment programs including the Quick Tap program in the U.K. and Google Wallet in the U.S. And even Discover was active in mobile payments as the original partner to sign on with Isis, the U.S. mobile payment joint venture of Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile.
The Mobile Network Operators
Not willing to sit back and be "dumb pipes" while all those mobile transactions crossed their networks, the wireless carriers made their own play for mobile payments in 2011. The pull of mobile payments was so tantalizing that mobile rivals announced this year that they would work together. Competing mobile operators in France, Germany, the U.K., Italy, Taiwan and elsewhere formed joint ventures to create national mobile payment networks. At this point, most are still figuring out how to work together with only France's Buyster actually online.
Isis, the American version of the mobile payment JV phenomenon, continued working this year toward an expected 2012 launch. Among other announcements the company formed partnerships with the major card brands, a mobile wallet provider and handset manufacturers. And while Isis' own product is still trying to get off the ground, that doesn't mean it's not impacting the market. Isis partner Verizon Wireless requested Google Wallet be disabled on one of the a handset, likely in an attempt to hamper an Isis competitor.
Google Wallet
And as for that competitor, May saw the launch of Google Wallet, a real, honest-to-goodness "tap and go" mobile payment solution for everybody. The company assembled all the necessary pieces to make a mobile payment happen at the point of sale including a carrier (Sprint), handset manufacturer (Samsung), card brand (MasterCard), TSM and merchant acquirer (First Data), and card issuer (Citi). Add in other companies like numerous point of sale manufacturers and retailers to accept Google Wallet and the effort was enormous. Google pulled it off in less than a year.
Google hasn't publicly discussed how many consumers have downloaded Google Wallet or are actively using it, but even if the numbers are modest, what Google accomplished by being first to market with a working mobile payment solution is not.
Even if 2011 didn't live up to the hype of being the inflection point where mobile payments took off, there were plenty of stories this year to show that mobile payments are coming, albeit slowly. It may not have been the year in mobile payments, but it certainly was a year in mobile payments.
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The firm is also set to start shipping a free, newly-designed GoPayment card reader in both the US and Canada that will "increase the accuracy of each card swipe".
Chris Hylen, GM, payment solutions, Intuit, says: "We're taking two big steps forward today: announcing GoPayment in Canada, and releasing a new and improved card reader. This is part of our strategy to offer GoPayment internationally and to innovate in ways that make it easier for our customers, in all markets, to never miss a sale."
The Canada moves sees Intuit steal a march on Square, which also plans to expand beyond the US market this year. The start-up, founded by Twitter's Jack Dorsey, was claiming a million merchant customers by the end of last year and the OfficeMax and UPS deals mean that it is now being sold in around 10,000 stores throughout the US.