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Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

How PayPal plans to scale its in-store payment system - 0 views

gigaom.com/...le-its-in-store-payment-system

3BT_NFC payments

shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 12 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • PayPal’s first retail tests of its in-store payment system is happening at Home Depot, the payment company acknowledged last week. But the bigger test will be ensuring that many more retailers and merchants are in a position to easily integrate PayPal’s system as it looks to roll out its offering this year.
  • PayPal is taking a big step forward by partnering with AJB Software Designs, which helps connect the point of sale terminals at many tier-one retailers to payment processors and financial institutions. AJB is now incorporating PayPal’s mobile payment system into its framework and building out a specific PayPal interface, which will allow PayPal users to pay through 250,000 point-of-sale terminals that connect to AJB software. AJB said it services 20 percent of the top retailers in North America. The AJB integration should be become available to retailers in the first quarter of this year.
  • Retailers will still have to decide if they want to enable payments via PayPal. And the process of outfitting stores and chains can take anywhere from days to weeks. But if they choose to make the software upgrade, retailers will be able to receive payments via a PayPal Access Card or through an “empty hand” payment in which a user accesses their PayPal account by entering in their phone number at a point of sale terminal. In both cases, they will need to confirm a transaction with a PIN code and then AJB’s software takes the request and pings PayPal, which authenticates the user. PayPal can send back coupon information or deals stored on a user’s PayPal app, which the user can then decide to apply before selecting their payment form and checking out. After the transaction, users will receive an e-receipt on their PayPal app and online in the PayPal account.
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  • Pat Polillo, vice president of sales and support for AJB, told me it’s unclear how many of AJB’s more than 140 major retailers will sign on with PayPal’s system when it becomes available later this year. But he said it’s an appealing option for retailers who don’t have to upgrade their point-of-sale hardware to accept payments from PayPal’s mobile payment system. He said five retailers have already asked if AJB will be working to support PayPal’s system.
  • “What’s nice about PayPal’s solution is it doesn’t require NFC hardware. That’s how you can envision that retailers would say it makes sense, because it uses the infrastructure already in their stores,” Polillo said.
  • PayPal plans to strike similar agreements with other payment ecosystems, PayPal spokesman Anuj Nayar told TechCrunch earlier this week.  Nayar told me recently that PayPal’s in-store payment system will roll out over the next 12 to 24 months. This is the beauty of PayPal’s approach because it doesn’t require consumers or merchants to have NFC devices, which is something PayPal has harped on a number of times. And if PayPal can do a good selling job on retailers, it has a pretty quick path toward a broad deployment.
  • But getting in stores is just the first step for PayPal. It has to show more value for merchants. As I wrote recently, PayPal is looking to leverage location-based offers to help drive traffic to retailers and encourage users to pay via PayPal, which can close the redemption loop and help show retailers the efficacy of using PayPal. But there needs to more ways for merchants and retailers to connect to consumers. Being able to establish a user’s presence inside a store will allow a merchant to send them offers and discounts. PayPal has shown off how it hopes to help merchants do this by encouraging users to scan QR codes when they enter a store for a coupon. And it is planning to let consumers scan items to check for inventory or purchase products directly from a store aisle and have it shipped home.
  • All of these other added elements are going to be necessary for PayPal to sell its system to merchants, who need more than just another payment system. Those elements will come in time but for now, PayPal is laying the ground work to be in a lot of stores later this year.
Dan R.D.

Beyond The Internet Of Things Towards A Sensor Commons | Techdirt - 0 views

www.techdirt.com/...s-towards-sensor-commons.shtml

Sensors Commons IoT 5RFID_IOT Data Trust Openness Opportunities

shared by Dan R.D. on 04 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Just what might be possible is hinted at in this fascinating post by Andrew Fisher, entitled "Towards a sensor commons": For me the Sensor Commons is a future state whereby we have data available to us, in real time, from a multitude of sensors that are relatively similar in design and method of data acquisition and that data is freely available whether as a data set or by API to use in whatever fashion they like. My definition is not just about “lots of data from lots of sensors” – there is a subtlety to it implied by the “relatively similar in design and method of data acquisition” statement. In order to be useful, we need to ensure we can compare data relatively faithfully across multiple sensors. This doesn’t need to be perfect, nor do they all need to be calibrated together, we simply need to ensure that they are “more or less” recording the same thing with similar levels of precision and consistency. Ultimately in a lot of instances we care about trended data rather than individual points so this isn’t a big problem so long as an individual sensor is relatively consistent and there isn’t ridiculous variation between sensors if they were put in the same conditions.
  • What this boils down to, then, is trends in freely-available real-time data from multiple sensors: it's about being able to watch the world change across some geographical area of interest -- even a small one -- and drawing conclusions from those changes. That's clearly a huge step up from checking what's in your fridge, and potentially has major political ramifications (unlike the contents of your fridge).
  • The bulk of the post explores what Fisher sees as the key requirements for a sensor commons, which must:
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  • Gain trust
  • Become dispersible
  • Be highly visible
  • Be entirely open
  • Be upgradeable
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

Intuit GoPayment Goes International With Canada Launch; Redesigns Mobile Credit Card Re... - 0 views

techcrunch.com/...igns-mobile-credit-card-reader

3BT_NFC mobile payments

shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 10 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Intuit is announcing major news this evening around its mobile credit card swiping device and Square-competitor GoPayment reader. Intuit is one of the first major U.S. mobile payments readers to go international, with a launch in Canada. And Intuit is debuting a newly, redesigned sleek version of its reader.
  • Launched two years ago, GoPayment offers a complimentary app and credit card reader to allow small businesses to conduct charges via their smartphones. GoPayment is available for iOS, Android and Blackberry phones and similar to Square’s device, the card reader simply plugs into the audio jack of a phone or tablet. The credit card data is also encrypted, (and never stored on the phone).
  • The GoPayment mobile payment app is free and the basic service has no monthly, transaction or cancellation fees, and offers a 2.7 percent rate for swiped transactions. Intuit and Square actually both eliminated the per transaction fee. And Intuit recently started allowing merchants to keep and receive funds on a prepaid credit card as opposed to depositing the amount in a bank account.
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  • GoPayment hardware reader and payments apps can now be used by Canadian small businesses and entrepreneurs as a way to accept credit card payments on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch device. Intuit says that GoPayment for Canada and the new GoPayment card reader will both be available in early 2012.
  • The most physically noticeable aspects of Intuit’s newly designed reader is its color and shape. The reader is now black (compared to its older white sibling, pictured in this post), and cylinder-shaped, creating a sleeker, smaller look. The reader has been designed to feature a silicone sleeve that conforms to the phone or tablet to provide stability support to keep the reader from moving or spinning when swiping a card.
  • Intuit says that without the stability, the readers spin on the audio jack, causing misreads of the credit card and requiring the user to need to hold the product in place while swiping. Intuit has also improved the swipe channel of the device to read cards accurately the first time by putting it on an angle, beveling it and making it longer.
  • Chris Hylen, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Payment Solutions division, says of the news today, “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.”
  • For Intuit, being the first to market in Canada is a big win for the mobile payments device. Navigating international markets is tricky for mobile payments companies because each country has different cards and payments infrastructure. We know Square also has ambitions of international expansion in 2012.
  • As for the native competitors in Canada, Kudos is a mobile card reader that is currently available in the country. VerFone’s PayWare mobile reader has also been available in Canada for some time. But considering the massive growth both Intuit and Square have seen among small businesses, the readers should see traction outside of the U.S.
D'coda Dcoda

This Is Generation Flux: Meet The Pioneers Of The New (And Chaotic) Frontier Of Busines... - 0 views

www.fastcompany.com/...ration-flux-future-of-business

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 16 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • The business climate, it turns out, is a lot like the weather. And we've entered a next-two-hours era. The pace of change in our economy and our culture is accelerating--fueled by global adoption of social, mobile, and other new technologies--and our visibility about the future is declining.
  • Uncertainty has taken hold in boardrooms and cubicles, as executives and workers (employed and unemployed) struggle with core questions: Which competitive advantages have staying power? What skills matter most? How can you weigh risk and opportunity when the fundamentals of your business may change overnight?
  • Look at the global cell-phone business. Just five years ago, three companies controlled 64% of the smartphone market: Nokia, Research in Motion, and Motorola. Today, two different companies are at the top of the industry: Samsung and Apple. This sudden complete swap in the pecking order of a global multibillion-dollar industry is unprecedented. Consider the meteoric rise of Groupon and Zynga, the disruption in advertising and publishing, the advent of mobile ultrasound and other "mHealth" breakthroughs (see "Open Your Mouth And Say 'Aah!'). Online-education efforts are eroding our assumptions about what schooling looks like. Cars are becoming rolling, talking, cloud-connected media hubs. In an age where Twitter and other social-media tools play key roles in recasting the political map in the Mideast; where impoverished residents of refugee camps would rather go without food than without their cell phones; where all types of media, from music to TV to movies, are being remade, redefined, defended, and attacked every day in novel ways--there is no question that we are in a new world.
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  • Any business that ignores these transformations does so at its own peril. Despite recession, currency crises, and tremors of financial instability, the pace of disruption is roaring ahead. The frictionless spread of information and the expansion of personal, corporate, and global networks have plenty of room to run. And here's the conundrum: When businesspeople search for the right forecast--the road map and model that will define the next era--no credible long-term picture emerges. There is one certainty, however. The next decade or two will be defined more by fluidity than by any new, settled paradigm; if there is a pattern to all this, it is that there is no pattern. The most valuable insight is that we are, in a critical sense, in a time of chaos.
  • To thrive in this climate requires a whole new approach, which we'll outline in the pages that follow. Because some people will thrive. They are the members of Generation Flux. This is less a demographic designation than a psychographic one: What defines GenFlux is a mind-set that embraces instability, that tolerates--and even enjoys--recalibrating careers, business models, and assumptions. Not everyone will join Generation Flux, but to be successful, businesses and individuals will have to work at it.
  • Digital competition destroyed bookseller Borders, and yet the big, stodgy music labels--seemingly the ground zero for digital disruption--defy predictions of their demise. Walmart has given up trying to turn itself into a bank, but before retail bankers breathe a sigh of relief, they ought to look over their shoulders at Square and other mobile-wallet initiatives. Amid a reeling real-estate market, new players like Trulia and Zillow are gobbling up customers. Even the law business is under siege from companies like LegalZoom, an online DIY document service. "All these industries are being revolutionized," observes Pete Cashmore, the 26-year-old founder of social-news site Mashable, which has exploded overnight to reach more than 20 million users a month. "It's come to technology first, but it will reach every industry. You're going to have businesses rise and fall faster than ever."
  • You Don't Know What You Don't Know "In a big company, you never feel you're fast enough." Beth Comstock, the chief marketing officer of GE
  • Within GE, she says, "our traditional teams are too slow. We're not innovating fast enough. We need to systematize change." Comstock connected me with Susan Peters, who oversees GE's executive-development effort. "The pace of change is pretty amazing," Peters says. "There's a need to be less hierarchical and to rely more on teams. This has all increased dramatically in the last couple of years."
  • Executives at GE are bracing for a new future. The challenge they face is the same one staring down wide swaths of corporate America, not to mention government, schools, and other institutions that have defined how we've lived: These organizations have structures and processes built for an industrial age, where efficiency is paramount but adaptability is terribly difficult. We are finely tuned at taking a successful idea or product and replicating it on a large scale. But inside these legacy institutions, changing direction is rough.
  • " The true challenge lies elsewhere, he explains: "In an increasingly turbulent and interconnected world, ambiguity is rising to unprecedented levels. That's something our current systems can't handle.
  • "There's a difference between the kind of problems that companies, institutions, and governments are able to solve and the ones that they need to solve," Patnaik continues. "Most big organizations are good at solving clear but complicated problems. They're absolutely horrible at solving ambiguous problems--when you don't know what you don't know. Faced with ambiguity, their gears grind to a halt.
  • The security of the 40-year career of the man in the gray-flannel suit may have been overstated, but at least he had a path, a ladder. The new reality is multiple gigs, some of them supershort (see "The Four-Year Career"), with constant pressure to learn new things and adapt to new work situations, and no guarantee that you'll stay in a single industry.
  • "So many people tell me, 'I don't know what you do,'" Kumra says. It's an admission echoed by many in Generation Flux, but it doesn't bother her at all. "I'm a collection of many things. I'm not one thing."
  • The point here is not that Kumra's tool kit of skills allows her to cut through the ambiguity of this era. Rather, it is that the variety of her experiences--and her passion for new ones--leaves her well prepared for whatever the future brings. "I had to try something entrepreneurial. I had to try social enterprise. I needed to understand government," she says of her various career moves. "I just needed to know all this."
  • You do not have to be a jack-of-all-trades to flourish in the age of flux, but you do need to be open-minded.
  • Nuke Nostalgia If ambiguity is high and adaptability is required, then you simply can't afford to be sentimental about the past. Future-focus is a signature trait of Generation Flux. It is also an imperative for businesses: Trying to replicate what worked yesterday only leaves you vulnerable.
  • "We now recognize that external focus is more multifaceted than simply serving 'the customer,'" says Peters, "that other stakeholders have to be considered. We talk about how to get and apply external knowledge, how to lead in ambiguous situations, how to listen actively, and the whole idea of collaboration."
D'coda Dcoda

Cell Phones, EMF Negatively Altering the Brain | New Study [28Jan12] - 0 views

naturalsociety.com/important-regions-of-the-brain

cell phones health

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 29 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • A new Greek scientific study has demonstrated how frequency electromagnetic fields, namely cell phones, portable phones, WiFi, and wireless computer equipment, alter important protein changes in the brains of animals. Exposure to electromagnetic frequencies is the result of our advancing technologies, but it is important to study these effects so people know exactly what they’re dealing with in order to take the necessary precautionary measures.
  • The study, entitled “Brain proteome response following whole body exposure of mice to mobile phone or wireless DECT base radiation,” was published in the journal Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine. Important areas of the brain such as the hippocampus, cerebellum, and frontal lobe are regions responsible for learning, memory, and other functions. These areas are negatively impacted by microwave radiation, even at levels below the safety guidelines put in place by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation protection
  • Researchers found that 143 proteins in the brain were negatively impacted by radio frequency radiation over a period of 8 months. A total of 3 hours of cell phone exposure were simulated over the 8 month time period, and the results showed that many neural function related proteins’ functional relationship changed the for worse.
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  • It is known that short term exposure of microwaves exuded from a cell phone, depending on how far the antenna is from the head, can penetrate as much as 1 1/2 inches into the brain, but this study focuses more on the long term effects and how EMF impacts specific brain proteins. This provides new evidence of the potential relationship between EMF and health complications stemming from EMF such as headaches, dizziness, sleep disorders, and even tumors and Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Another study conducted by a Russian team of researchers also showed that EMF and cell phones cause significant long-term cognitive decline in children. It may be time for parents to re-determine if young children should really be using these devices with growing bodies and developing brains.
  • A number of foreign countries are attempting to adopt precautionary protocols to limit cell phone use in an attempt to mitigate the number of adverse effects they have on human health. In 2011, the WHO/IARC released a report stating that cell phone radiation may have a carcinogenic effect on humans. In fact, the World Health Organization actually said that cell phones are in the same cancer-causing category as lead, engine exhaust, and chloroform.
D'coda Dcoda

Google hidden 'Ad Preferences' page reveals what privacy-row search giant thinks it kno... - 0 views

www.dailymail.co.uk/...ch-giant-thinks-knows-you.html

google privacy

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 29 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • IT has been said that Google knows more about what you like than your own partnerNow the search giant has given a glimpse on just how much information it has collected - and who thinks you are.But it seems the famed Google algorithms are far from infallible.
  • And people taking advantage of the facility that allows the public to view what kind of consumer Google thinks they are have been amused to find themselves listed with the wrong age and even sex.Nevertheless, the knowledge that Google works so hard to profile its 350m account holders is bound to intensify the debate about privacy which flared up again this week with the announcement that the company was going to start tracking users across all of its sites, including YouTube.
  • The detailed personal 'profile' sums up many of a user's interests, along with age and gender.Google builds a detailed profile by harvesting the history of its account holders' visits to sites in its advertising network.But your age and gender are decided by those of other Google users who have visited the sites you visit, leading to the mistakes
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  • One blogger from tech site Mashable found this week that Google's Ad Preferences page assume that she was middle-aged - and a man, simply because her interests included technology and computing.  The profile page, called Ad Preferences, is hidden away inside a settings menu in Google Accounts, but can be accessed directly here. This sort of in-depth profiling raises alarm bells with privacy activists. 'Consumers have increasingly digital lives and they are developing an unfathomably large data trail every day,' says Rainey Reitman, activism director for privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation. 'There has never been another time in history where privacy was under the kind of assault it is today.'You can opt out of the tracking, or manually edit your details. Google also  does not store information on controversial subjects such as pornography. The Ad preferences page came to public attention following a sweeping change to 'privacy policy' which comes into effect on March 1, although the preferences page was launched some time ago. YouTube data, Gmail information and search data will all be used to build up ever more accurate advertising profiles and also the company claims it will make searches more personalised.
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

New UK Mobile Payments Report & Usage Benchmark - MarketWatch - 0 views

www.marketwatch.com/...ort-usage-benchmark-2012-02-01

3BT_NFC mobile payments

shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 04 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • NEW YORK & LONDON, Feb 01, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Auriemma Consulting Group (ACG) is set to launch its new Mobile Payments Report (MPR), a market research service that provides comprehensive and trended insight covering mobile as a payments device, means to manage finances, marketing channel, and as a method of engaging with consumers. It tracks consumer usage, penetration, and attitudes towards mobile across more than 50 key measures on a quarterly basis, and is therefore a source of deep consumer-led insight. The service is enhanced by consulting support from payments industry practitioners to enable subscribers to shape, adapt, and prioritise mobile payments strategy based on evolving consumer needs and mindsets.
  • The MPR is an invaluable source of insight that solves multiple issues in a rapidly evolving market place. Unlike other 'spot' research it is trended four times a year, can have customised cross-tabulations based on precise subscriber needs, and will evolve as the industry evolves. Through insight and research, it enables subscribers to understand how consumers think, feel, and behave to craft compelling strategy and propositions
  • Strong competition for market share is expected to emerge within the mobile payment space from non-traditional issuers such as Google and PayPal, making the development of mobile solutions imperative to engage and retain customers. The MPR, by serving as an industry level benchmark, will ensure that subscribers can monitor best practices and access timely, up-to-date, tracked and trended consumer insight. This information is critical for firms to make the right investment choices to maximise the chances of successfully building and realising the benefits from mobile payment solutions.
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  • "Mobile is one of the most talked about channels in the consumer cards and payments space and for good reason; it represents the most exciting opportunity in the industry for growth, engagement, and differentiation," said Mark Jackson, Director at ACG. "As a new channel, it is a blank canvas which enables providers to innovate for the consumer and demonstrate their relevance to the consumer's lifestyle. Therefore, it is not only commercially attractive, but also strategically important."
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

The Future Of Mobile Payments: Text A Word And Pay For Something - 0 views

www.businessinsider.com/d-and-pay-for-something-2012-2

3BT_NFC mobile payments

shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 04 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Imagine a world where by simply texting a word, like "Sandwich" will result in a quick and seamless transaction so you could  go about your day.  Think about how much easier our lives would be if we didn't have to wait in line, handle cash or be turned away from food or beverage if we don't have our wallets in hand
  • What if texting wasn't just meant for communication, but also designed for transaction?
  • Today, most people take more precautions about carrying their mobile devices than carrying their wallets or purses.
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  • The new question is: if your house is on fire what do you grab, your wallet or your phone?
  • I bet the answer is an overwhelming "phone", since we do almost everything with our mobile devices and very soon we won't be needing a wallet.
  • Our vision at Seconds is to make it easier for merchants and customers to interact and transact.  This is no more apparent than when looking at our latest innovations on the mobile payment front: Pay by Text.
  • Okay, here's a great one.... how about anything to do with hospitality?  Already, when you check in to a hotel they ask for your contact information, namely a cell phone number.  By running on the Seconds platform the can now open a quick and easy channel for you to text and pay for room service, any and all products... not to mention your room.  Or what about on a Vegas Casino floor....
  • Here's how it works: Once a mobile user sets up a Seconds account and attaches a payment card, they now can simply pay for the desired product with a one word text to the merchant's Seconds number, in this case it would be the word "Sandwich".  The resulting text a few seconds later will inform the user they indeed have been successfully charged X amount.  Done.
  • We are currently one month into a pilot program with a customer testing the functionality and perfecting the process.   Each week we are seeing more and more mobile transactions through Pay by Text, and if things keep going the way they are now this could become the default payment method outside simple food offerings.
  • Roll with me for a moment.  Imagine going to a movie and rather than waiting in line for the teller to give you a ticket you just simply text "Mission Impossible 4" to the box office and the next thing you know you have paid for the movie and are sent the secret code to enter via text.
  • Or how about the next time to your favorite band is in town.... do we really have to deal with the whole Ticketmaster ordeal?  Why can't I send a text to the concert organizer with a simple "Said Band Name" and pay for the price of admission.
  • Important Note: This is not carrier billing, where you place the transaction onto your cell phone bill.  Seconds is completely separate from the carrier and a stand alone mobile payment system.
  • So, what about NFC? The problem with NFC technology is you actually have to be in physical proximity for the transaction to work.  The whole point of "Near Field Communication" is touching or swiping your device on a reader which will result in a transaction.  But what happens if I want to pay for something when I am not actually at the specific location or can't get within a few inches of the reader?  What if it's ecommerce, which will become more prevalent as time goes on?  Although it might have its place, it looks as if NFC  underwhelms and under-delivers.
  • That is why we are very excited about our Pay by Text technology, we see a whole new world of payments when you disassociate proximity with transaction.  It's going well right now and the future is looking very bright for Seconds.
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

Sage Mobile Payments Handles Credit Cards, Signatures And Taxes - 0 views

www.appcraver.com/...g-new-sage-mobile-payments-2-0

3BT_NFC mobile payments

shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 04 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • “While other vendors are fighting over no monthly fees, but higher processing costs for mobile transactions, we’re still saying ‘no’ to mobile transaction surcharges,” said Hammermaster. “With Sage Mobile Payments, businesses have the option to pay no more than they would to process regular credit or debit card transactions on a standard credit card terminal.” 
  • Enhancements built into Sage Mobile Payment 2.0 include an updated user interface, signature capture capabilities, a tax and tip calculator, and a free Sage Mobile “app store” download.
  • “In 2011, 25 percent of worldwide mobile PC shipments were tablets, and upwards of 75 percent U.S. small and midsized businesses plan to purchase tablets in the next year,” said Greg Hammermaster, president of Sage Payment Solutions, the payments division for Sage. “Mobility has truly become a must-have in today’s business world. Businesses using Sage Mobile Payments have a great opportunity to expand their sales and customer service opportunities, and with the confidence of a commercial-grade mobile payments solution. Sage Mobile Payments will help businesses evolve into this next phase of mobile payments.”
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  • New Sage Mobile Payments 2.0 features:One Merchant Account — Businesses can now use their existing Sage Merchant ID (MID) account to add mobile payments to their existing payment solution, and at the same low processing rate.Updated User Interface on Smart Phones — The new, completely intuitive, colorful user interface makes processing payments easier than ever.Signature Capture — Businesses can give customers peace of mind knowing a signature is required to complete their transaction. With the swipe of a finger, a signature is captured to complete a sale. A signed receipt is emailed to both the business and their customer.Tax And Tip Calculator — Businesses no longer need a separate calculator to determine tax due and tips; Sage Mobile automatically calculates both.‘App Store’ Download — By going to the Android Marketplace or Apple’s iTunes store, businesses can download the Sage Mobile application at no cost. Then, once they have called Sage to set up their merchant account, they can start accepting mobile payments.
  • Businesses using Sage Mobile Payments can benefit from increased chances to close sales; anytime, anywhere transactions; a secure and PCI compliant payment processing environment; real-time authorizations for expedited cash flow; and minimal cost.Sage has been providing businesses and organizations with electronic payment systems for more than 20 years. Visit Sage Payment Solutions online at www.sagepayments.com.
  • Sage North America today announced the launch of Sage Mobile Payments 2.0, the latest version of its Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant mobile payments product. Sage Mobile Payments comes bundled with a Sage merchant account, and allows businesses to cost effectively and securely process credit and debit card transactions on mobile devices, like cell phones and tablets, including Apple’s iPad, across all major wireless carriers. Version 2.0 focuses on enhancing the customer experience through new features designed to save businesses time and increase the security of their transactions.
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

More retailers turning paper checks into e-transfers - MarketWatch - 0 views

www.marketwatch.com/...-paper-checks-into-e-transfers

3BT_NFC mobile payments

shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 06 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- When an unidentified $30 debit showed up on her bank statement as an electronic funds transfer, Cheryl Hicks was mystified.
  • Each month, three electronic transfers go through her account -- and this wasn't one she recognized. "It just said ACH debit and the amount," said Hicks, a 33-year-old communications manager who lives near Everett, Washington.
  • Hicks soon discovered her phone company transformed the paper check she sent for payment into an e-transfer, and her bank failed to list either the check number or the recipient on her statement.
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  • Hicks' inability to readily identify the EFT debit illustrates a mounting bookkeeping problem some checking customers are encountering as banks and retailers seek to minimize the handling of paper checks to cut costs and boost profit.
  • "While the EFTs are helpful to everybody and clearly more efficient, I'm not sure the banking system has adequate safeguards," said Kent Phelps, a vice president of software engineering for WitsEnd Software, which develops programs enabling check scanning.
  • Customers lack the ability to set parameters on the practice, he said. "I ought to be able to tell the bank 'I'm going to authorize EFT, but I want to be called if its over $5,000 or will empty the bank account."
  • A fast-growing number of U.S. retailers are scanning images of checks into banks' computer systems and destroying the originals. An estimated 461 million check payments have been converted into e-payments since January 2002, according to NACHA, the Electronic Payments Association.
  • Meanwhile, a law called Check 21 will go into effect next October allowing banks to send checks to each other electronically, eliminating the need to transport them manually from bank to bank, and authorizing check "substitutes" to be used in a court of law.
  • Banks and merchants say electronic check scanning helps detect fraud more quickly, while also saving 5 to 25 cents a transaction, according to NACHA.
  • Some problems arise In bank-to-bank electronic transactions, the check payment moves faster through the system -- meaning consumers should no longer count on a three- to five-day lag time. Otherwise, check-writers are unlikely to notice a change, aside from receiving copies of their returned checks in lieu of the originals.
  • Some consumer advocates warn that many merchants aren't fully educated in the legal ins-and-outs of check scanning. Gail Hillebrand, senior attorney with Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, said she's received complaints that companies have run checks through twice, once as an electronic transfer and again as a regular check.
  • "There are a lot of merchants who don't really know what the rules are," Hillebrand said. "The merchant thinks 'you owe me money, I have this check here because I didn't send it in last month, I'll send it through now.'
  • "The fact that that is inconsistent with NACHA rules and probably illegal, the merchant doesn't know and hasn't been educated."
  • Hicks couldn't find any notice on phone bills that her checks would be converted to electronic transfers, though the NACHA rules governing the process require companies to notify consumers every time they plan to convert a check into an electronic payment.
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

PayPal tests NFC payments app - 0 views

www.mobilecommercedaily.com/...paypal-tests-nfc-payments-app

3BT_NFC mobile payments

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  • PayPal is testing an NFC mobile payments application at two stores in Sweden while it continues to look for ways to expand access to its payments services.
  • PayPal has been experimenting with NFC for a while and recently incorporated NFC into the latest version of its Android app to enable peer-to-peer payments with two mobile phone users tapping their phones together to transfer money between them. The NFC payments app test is running in conjunction with two Swedish retailers and the Swedish developer Accumulate over a five day period.
  • “There has been some confusion out there,” said Anuj Nayar, director of communications for PayPal, San Jose, CA. “We are not anti NFC.
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  • Offline payments The test is running for five days, during which time anyone who downloads the app from the Android store or Apple store in Sweden and enters their PayPal credentials can receive an NFC sticker when they arrive at one of the two stores so they can tap to pay for items in the store.
  • “Our wallet lives in the cloud and not on devices. There are plenty of ways to access your wallet in the cloud and NFC could be a great way to do that.”
  • “We think it is a very interesting technology and we are looking at ways to use it,” he said. “It is one of the technologies that we are looking at – we are not betting the bank on NFC.
  • PayPal parent company eBay has not been a big supporter of NFC – or near-field communications – technology. However, as a leader in the alternative payments space, it makes sense that PayPal would want to investigate NFC.
  • “While eBay maybe hasn’t been a big proponent, PayPal has been quite vocal about the opportunity,” said Drew Sievers, CEO of mFoundry, Larkspur, CA. “PayPal is the biggest jewel in the eBay empire, so their vision is, in my opinion, the most interesting driver for eBay corporate.
  • “PayPal’s publicly stated goal is to become as important a payment option offline as it is online,” he said. “NFC is a potentially disruptive technology that could offer fertile ground for PayPal’s offline payments endeavors.”
  • NFC has been embraced by numerous companies such as Google, Isis – which is a partnership of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile – and others. However, there are significant challenges facing these companies’ efforts to expand NFC as there are still a limited number of mobile phones available that support NFC.
  • However, PayPal – as an alternative payment solution – also faces the challenge of getting retailers to accept PayPal payments if it were to try for a broader NFC roll out.
  • “PayPal faces the same challenges with NFC as everyone else in the ecosystem: NFC-enabled phone penetration combined with merchant acceptance penetration,” Mr. Sievers said.
  • “In fact, they face an additional challenge since nearly every existing NFC-enabled merchant takes Visa, MC, Amex, and Discover, but those same points of sale don’t take PayPal yet,” he said.
  • “So PayPal has two things to sell: NFC acceptance and PayPal acceptance. That’s a tough sell.”
  • Long-term strategy While the NFC test is limited, it is another example of how PayPal is trying to bring its technology to bricks-and-mortar retailers. PayPal wants to get merchants to use PayPal and is looking for ways to embed PayPal in the shopping experience via applications, deals and a variety of other merchant services.
  • “EBay is recognizing that NFC is one of those things that would enable them to grow more in a physical retail environment rather than providing online or electronic transactions,” said John Devlin, London-based group director of AutoID and Smart Cards at ABI Research.
  • However, it is likely to be some time before PayPal would be able to deploy an NFC solution on any kind of scale. “This is something that they are thinking about on a medium to long-term basis,” Mr. Devlin said.
  • “In the next couple of years, NFC is really going to be used at the local or national market level rather than an international basis,” he said. “Once it becomes more widely available, that is when PayPal would be more actively interested in pushing ahead.
  • The sticker model of NFC – where an NFC sticker is placed on a mobile device to make it compatible with an NFC reader – is more of a limited solution.
  • “It is not able to plug into the handset and take advantage of all of the different smartphone functionality,” Mr. Devlin said. “It has advantages in that you can upgrade existing handsets quickly and easily but I don’t think anyone is really pushing ahead with stickers for a long-term consumer solution on a mass market level. This indicates that this is a trial rather than a precursor to a wider deployment.”
  • Proximity payments PayPal expects to do $3.5 billion in mobile payments this year using its existing payments solutions. The NFC mobile app test is another way that it is experimenting with new payments solutions as proximity payments grow “This is what we’ve always done – experiment and test and be open to partnerships to drive innovation,” Mr. Nayar said. “What we are going to start to see soon is the growth in proximity payments where you need to be in contact with a reader of some sort,” he said. “This can be done with Bluetooth, RFID and NFC is another way to do it.”
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

Square Expands Retail Partnerships; Now Sold At OfficeMax And UPS Store Locations | Tec... - 0 views

techcrunch.com/...icemax-and-ups-store-locations

3BT_NFC mobile payments

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  • For disruptive mobile payments startup Square, 2011 was a year of massive growth on many levels. The startup ended the year with over 1 million merchants using the mobile payments platform to accept credit cards (there are only 8 million merchants who accept credit cards in the US). In November, Square announced it was processing $11 million in payments per day (up from $4 million a day in July). Sir Richard Branson, Kleiner Perkins, Visa, and other investors poured over $100 million over the course of the year into Square, with the company’s latest valuation pegged at $1 billion. And Square announced a number of new product innovations, including Card Case, a new iPad app and more. Not to mention the unveiling of  retail deals with Apple, Wal-mart, Best Buy, Radio Shack, and Target. It’s hard to imagine how Square could top such an eventful year. But according to COO Keith Rabois, 2012 will prove to be even more monumental for the mobile payments company.
  • Square is kicking of 2012 with two new retail deals, OfficeMax and select UPS Store locations. With these new retailer partnerships, Square is now being sold at 10,000 retail locations, up from 9,000 at the end of last year. Square’s credit card readers sell for $9.99 in stores but each purchaser can redeem a $10 credit to their bank account. According to Rabois, retail sales of Square has been a large driver of adoption. In fact, currently 80 percent of U.S. population is within 15 minutes of a Square device sold at a retail location.
  • Beyond expanding retail deals (there are more to come, he says); Square will also be looking to upgrade the experience of running a business, end-to-end, on the iPad. Last May, the company debuted new iPad app Square Register, a high-powered point of sale replacement for cash registers and point of sale terminals. This year, the startup will add to the capabilities of this software, enabling small businesses to grow and manage their operations off of the device.
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  • For example, Square will be adding in-depth merchant analytics to its iPad experience, allowing merchants to access information about which inventory is selling well, and what they can do to help make more money. Rabois tells me it’s about providing data insights from transactions and interactions, and giving these small businesses the tools that big businesses and retailers can afford. As for focusing just on the iPad, he says that if there is an Android tablet that has traction, Square will invest in a comparable Android tablet offering.
  • Another product area where Square will be continuing to focus its efforts is on Card Case, which is a virtual card case (via a mobile app) that consumers fill with ‘cards’ of all the merchants they visit and buy from who accept Square. These mobile cards include locations, merchant contact info, coupons, order and purchase history and more. Users can also use Card Case to ‘pay with their name’ and even enable hands-free payments.
  • Rabois explains that Card Case has seen major traction amongst consumers, and is on the same growth trajectory (in terms of usage and engagement) as Square was when it first launched to the public in 2009. One area where the startup will be innovating is personalization, and helping merchants to provide a more individual, personalized experience based on interactions to each customer.
  • As for transaction volumes, Rabois declined to give us any exact numbers but did say that transactions have hit way north of $11 million per day on a number of days in the past few months.
  • Armed with over $100 million in new funding, Square is also preparing for international expansion within the year, which was revealed at the time of Branson’s investment.
  • With the major product innovations set to take place this year, Rabois tells me that Square is also looking to triple its employee count in 2012. Currently, Square has a staff of 200 employees, up from around 40 at the same time in 2011. Most of the hiring will be of engineers, specializing in a variety of areas including iOS, Android, Ruby, back-end infrastructure and more.
  • In the end, Square’s 2012 goals are still aligned to the startup’s core principle: to help small businesses everywhere accept credit cards. Rabois says that there are still 26 million businesses in the U.S. that don’t accept credit cards, and he expects to convert a “huge fraction of them” this year. Stay tuned.
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

NetSecure Kudos Payments announced for Canada, is the half-circle to Square -- Engadget - 0 views

www.engadget.com/...d-for-canada-is-the-half-circl

3BT_NFC mobile payments

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  • Canada may be moving to polymer-based currency, but mobile payment services like Square -- which cater to classic plastic -- haven't yet taken time to trek to the Great White North. NetSecure is looking to offer similar convenience to the region with its new Kudos Payments service, which just so happens to ship with a shockingly curvy swiping dongle. Similar to Square, it creates a secure 'point of sale' without a hard-wired transaction terminal, and charges a slightly higher 2.9-percent fee to users' accounts for each exchange. Kudos has iOS, Android, and Blackberry apps to tap into the functionality and, even a version for Mac and PC -- in other words, you and yours should be suitably covered. Any roving entrepreneurs who are interested in the service will be able to snag the $49.99 kit free of charge from the company's website for a "limited time," which may or may not expire before Google decides to open its own Wallet a few miles kilometers north
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

O2 delays launch of Wallet | News | Marketing Week - 0 views

www.marketingweek.co.uk/...3033199.article

3BT_NFC mobile payments

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  • The launch of O2’s mobile contactless payment “Wallet” app has been delayed after concerns that it is not yet offering an adequate customer experience.
  • The operator, which initially said it was planning to launch O2 Wallet in the “second half” of 2011, is choosing to take extra time trialling the service internally before opening up consumer trials and a subsequent public launch
  • O2 Wallet is currently being trialled by more than 300 O2 employees and this is thought to increase to about 500 staff in the coming weeks as the app becomes compatible with more devices and other O2 services such as its loyalty programme Priority Moments.
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  • An O2 spokesman says: “We’ve decided to take extra time trialling the service internally before opening it up to customers. This will ensure that when we launch, the service will be as appealing as Priority Moments has been.”
  • Priority Moments customers have redeemed more than £5m in savings since its launch in July, according to O2. Its success has led to the company creating its first dedicated team for Priority Moments as O2 looks to further expand the proposition this year
  • The O2 Wallet aims to bring the contents of the physical wallet, including payment, travel and loyalty cards to the mobile phone, as well as extra services such as the ability to compare the price of items, special offers from “120 retailers” and ticketing
  • O2 now has more than 250 staff in its Money division, which operates O2 Wallet as well as insurance services. This is an increase from 30 people a year ago when the department primarily looked after its Cash Manager and Load & Go cards, which closed in November in preparation for the launch of O2 Wallet
  • Rival operator Everything Everywhere launched its “Quick Tap” contactless payment service in partnership with Mastercard in May, while brands such as Google and Vodafone are also expected to launch similar wallet services in the UK in the coming months.
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

Top 7 Mobile Commerce Trends in 2011 - 0 views

www.readwriteweb.com/..._commerce_trends_in_2011p2.php

3BT_NFC mobile payments

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  • 4. Offers, Offers and More Offers With the daily deals craze dying down post-Groupon IPO, mobile offers are springing up. Google Offers, Google's response to Groupon's daily deals, continues to expand and personalize its deals. It recently stepped into the mobile commerce space with an Android app. Amazon entered the daily deals space with Amazon Local. Mobile commerce isn't a part of the story, but with Amazon's hefty investment in Living Social and an infrastructure far more mature than Groupon's, Amazon may be waiting for just the right moment before really making its move. Meanwhile, daily deals superhero Groupon moved further into the location-based mobile commerce space through a partnership with Loopt. Soon after the Loopt announcement, Groupon launched Groupon Now, which inserts real-time, location-based offers into the daily deals game. Such offers are usually only available for a few hours, do not include the typical Groupon tipping point and are meant for impulsive mobile users.
  • 5. Shop Till You Sit: Tablet Commerce Tablets are all the rage this year. A recent study by eMarketer.com predicts that one in three online consumers will use a tablet at least once a month by the year 2014. Appel iPads are positioned to dominate the tablet market until 2015. So what are people doing on their tablets? Shopping, naturally. And thus the boom of tablet commerce. Amazon.com, the top revenue-producing Internet retailer, naturally leads the pack with a strong tablet-optimized site. Couch commerce, the act of sitting on one's couch and shopping from a smartphone and tablet, saw a strong increase this year - especially after Thanksgiving dinner and on Black Friday. Amazon launched its Kindle Fire tablet on September 28. ReadWriteWeb Writer Jon Mitchell calls it a store with a screen, quite literally suggesting that its sole purpose is to be a media consumption device. As the Kindle Fire continues to gain consumer mindshare and more developers flock to the Amazon Appstore (don't call it the App Store, OK?), we expect more tablet commerce growth in this area. Shopping catalogs designed specifically for tablets will add to the tablet commerce experience. Google launched a shopping catalog app for tablets back in August. Google Catalogs, as they're called, are like "window shopping with your iPad and Android tablet." The only potential problem for retailers? Now they won't have catalog readers' home addresses on hand.
  • 6. Location and Local Groundswell: Chicago to Des Moines to Boston and Back Again The partnership between daily deals service Groupon and location check-in Foursquare was a big one. The two got together and made it happen. Or, as the Groupon blog says, "when we think of mobile addiction beyond Now! we think foursquare, and many of you guys do, too." The idea of positioning daily deals on Foursquare as an "addiction" doesn't exactly insure longevity; rather, it signals imminent burnout. But hey, we'll forgive Groupon's marketing team - with Groupon's stock prices slumping, the company is needs to keep looking for new ways to hit up consumers. Dwolla, mobile payments system based in U.S. mobile payments capital Des Moines, Iowa, seeks to completely sidestep credit cards. Unlike its main competitor PayPal, Dwolla does not snag a percentage of the transaction; instead, it asks for a shiny silver quarter, regardless of the transaction amount. LevelUp from Boston-based SCVNGR brings location-based gaming to the daily deals space. The idea is simple: Users will receive better deals the more they use the system. Much like the "unlocking" of Foursquare badges, LevelUp users will unlock new "levels" of awesome deals with particular merchants as they continue buying. Like its competitor Dwolla, SCVNGR recently began building local mobile payments into LevelUp.
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  • 7. Don't Forget The Dongle Dongles refer to a device that is connect to a computer to allow access to wireless or protected software. In the case of mobile commerce, a dongle would be a mobile credit card swiper that attaches to the mobile device. Square, Verisign and Intuit lead the way in dongle innovation. But with Google Wallet and NFCs (near field communications) on the move, do dongles have a future? Square's Card Case digital wallet is a dongle. It lets you pay by saying your name and only your name - if the merchant you visit is in the Square directory. With its dongle reader, Square aims to make mobile payments mainstream. Intuit's recent mobile payments innovation introduce the dongle-to-debit-card. The company wants to make it easier for small- and medium-sized businesses to accept transactions on the go. While Square is the leader in the dongle world, Intuit offers QuickBooks, tax refunds, bank partnerships, health check-ins and other management systems. Dongle providers such as Verifone, Intuit, Erply, ROAMPay, TRUSTe and PayAnywhere will continue to push their products as the space evolves.
  • Conclusion Mobile commerce is at a tipping point. It has not hit a critical, mainstream mass, however. First, the battle of NFCs vs. mobile wallets vs. dongles will need to settle, with one emerging and the others either following and finding their niches, or disappearing completely. Carrier billing will play a crucial role in how consumers start easing into the idea of mobile commerce. The daily deals space will become more focused on mobile, particularly in the ares of personalization and location-based targeting - people who use their phones are glued to them, naturally, and they must start receiving time-sensitive offers at exactly the right moment. Tablet commerce will continue to expand, as more people buy tablets and engage in "couch commerce." Catalogs, tablet-optimized websites and fast conversion rates make this the perfect platform for capturing consumers who already feel devoted to their tablets. In the dongle space, Square will continue to position themselves as the thought leaders, though they will face a fierce competition from Intuit.
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

PayPal pitches its wider vision for mobile payments - Tech News and Analysis - 0 views

gigaom.com/...der-vision-for-mobile-payments

3BT_NFC mobile payments

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  • PayPal has been a powerhouse in online payments but it hasn’t really cracked the much bigger market for payments for goods in the real world. Now, the company is starting to show off how it can put all of its components and recent acquisitions together to form a broad tool for mobile payments.
  • PayPal hosted a partner event for retailers yesterday and began explaining how they’ll be able to implement its tools for in-store payments. The big reveal will happen next month at PayPal’s developer conference in San Francisco, but the company showed a glimpse of how it’s marshaling its resources. It’s important for PayPal to step up with a compelling offering because the mobile payments market is getting crowded with options like Square, Google Wallet and upcoming services like Isis from the cellular carriers and digital wallets from credit card companies.
  • Scott Thompson, president of PayPal, said in a blog post the company is looking to be a one-stop shop for merchants to help them address every part of the shopping lifecycle. OK, that’s a bit of jargon, but it means PayPal is going to help push out targeted advertising, help with in-store discovery and improve transactions with a handful of options.
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  • In a video provided by PayPal, it shows how users will be able to walk into a store and check in to a location to unlock discounts and coupons. When a consumer goes to check out, he’ll be able to pay by entering his phone number. That leverages eBay’s purchase of Zong and its carrier billing capabilities, though it’s not clear how much easier or more convenient that is for consumers who pay with a credit card swipe. But it does open up the option to use carrier billing for physical goods in-store, which is good for people without a card, though the question of how large the transactions fees will be is important. Right now, carrier billing fees are still much higher than credit card fees, which might deter some merchants.
  • Users will also be able to scan items in-store and pay for them with PayPal without having to get in line. Customers can just flash their phone to an employee who will confirm the purchase. This is very much like AisleBuyer and it sounds like PayPal is looking to bring this to restaurant bills as well, something Thompson hinted at in his blog post. This is a cool step that makes sense for people who want to get in and out quickly.
  • Customers will be able to apparently pay ahead for coffee ahead of time and pick it up. Users will also be able to choose how they pay for something after the purchase with PayPal Credit, which seems to leverage eBay’s BillMeLater. All of this appears to work through PayPal’s mobile application and doesn’t seem to require any new investments by merchants. That’s a big concern for mobile payments built on near field communication, which requires many businesses to upgrade their point-of-sale terminals to handle contactless payments.
  • The new mobile payment tools don’t appear to include NFC payments. PayPal recently introduced person-to-person payments using NFC on Android devices, but the company told me at the time it was just focusing NFC on P2P payments. It sounds like PayPal is trying to work around the hardware constraints of NFC payments at point of sale.
  • Other shopping features on display included the ability to get push notifications for discounts that can be shared, which appears to build off eBay’s acquisition of WHERE. Consumers will also be able to scan an item in store and find inventory at other locations, something eBay got from its RedLaser and Milo pick-ups.
  • It’s unclear how soon all of this will come together and how many merchants will sign on. But providing a complete service for retailers and businesses to not only push out offers and discounts but also complete the transactions makes sense. Merchants can close the loop on transactions and understand how their marketing is doing. This is essentially what Google is trying to do with Google Wallet and Offers though it’s focusing primarily on facilitating targeted marketing, rather than taking a cut of transactions.
  • PayPal’s payment initiative is part of eBay’s broader commerce platform called X.commerce, which it’s building off the acquisition of Magento.
  • But there’s also a lot of questions to be answered. For instance, will consumers find this more convenient than a card swipe? Will PayPal make it any easier for people to set-up and manage accounts? Do all of these parts work well together in one solution? And how aggressive will PayPal be in selling this to merchants and consumers? I’ll be interested to hear more and I think PayPal can be a big contender if it gets its execution right. This is going to be a big market but it will require not only great tools but a lot of smart selling to consumers and merchants.
Dan R.D.

Does Twitter have more influence than Facebook? | Media | guardian.co.uk [07Nov11] - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...twitter-facebook

facebook twitter competition growth value 1UE_NS

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  • You hear things about Facebook. You see things. As its audience matures, a subtle shift might be under way. Of course, numbers remain staggering. Facebook is heading toward the 800 million users mark, mostly by conquering new markets. The growth is distributed as follows: Middle-East Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America grow by about 60% a year; Europe by 35% to 40%; and North America by 25%.
  • It now seems Facebook's usage is undergoing a split. Active Facebookers become increasingly engaged, spend more time doing more stuff, while "reasonable" users (over 25) become more reluctant and careful.
  • older people are joining in western markets, while a younger audience grows in emerging ones. More changes are under way as the internet spreads on both landlines and mobile devices: over the past three years, China added more internet users than exist in the US today. Furthermore, in the fastest growing markets, Facebook captures more than 90% of all social network traffic. So, for the near future, Facebook doesn't have a growth problem.
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  • Who benefits from such shift? Twitter, primarily. Globally, Twitter's microblogging/social network is much smaller than Facebook, with a reported 200 million users, only a fraction of which are really active. Business-wise, Facebook is 30 times larger than Twitter and is expected to gross $4.27bn this year, according to eMarketer ultra-precise estimates; that's more than twice last year's revenue. As for Twitter, its advertising strategy is gaining traction: again, eMarketer expects Twitter to make $139.5m, up 210% from the previous year.
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

Google Wallet is good for mobile payments, says rival Isis | Mobile - CNET News [10Nov11] - 0 views

news.cnet.com/...obile-payments-says-rival-isis

3BT_NFC mobile payments

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  • Michael Abbott, the CEO of carrier-backed mobile payments joint venture Isis, has an interesting take on rival Google Wallet: "It's the best thing that could happen."
  • That's not the sort of thing you would expect to hear from the head of a venture that is planning to roll out its own mobile-payment system, designed to allow consumers to tap their phone on special terminals to pay for goods. Abbott, however, holds a longer-term view of the business, and believes that the entry by multiple parties is a good thing. It generates greater consumer awareness, stirs the various retailers, carriers, handset makers and banks into motion, and generally gets the debate about mobile payments flowing. He doesn't believe there will be any clear-cut winners or losers, and expects to see many options for consumers.
  • "There will be multiple solutions out there, and none of them are wrong," Abbott said in an interview with CNET, noting that "competition is what this space needs."
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  • Isis, which was formed through a partnership involving AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile USA, is attempting to enter the mobile payments business at a busy time. Google has already launched Google Wallet, although it remains limited to one smartphone on Sprint Nextel, and is only compatible with merchants with newer payment terminals. Visa, meanwhile, is attempting to create its own digital wallet. American Express, which has expressed a preference to partner, on Monday said it would invest $100 million in start-ups devoted to digital payments.
  • The approach that Isis is taking is wholly different from Google. Isis is working on a neutral platform that serves as a foundation for other parties such as retailers, credit card issuers and payment networks, who can plug in and offer their own services to their customers. Isis doesn't access any of the customer data. Abbott said it is working with a number of different business models, including charging a rental fee to use the platform, or possibly taking a cut of each transaction. The hope is the platform is valuable enough of a tool that companies will be willing to pay to use it.
  • That's a wholly different approach than Google Wallet, which is largely controlled by Google. Under that model, Google is providing the payment services to retailers, payment networks and banks for free. But in exchange, it gets access to the customer's data, enabling the company to deliver targeted ads.
  • "Free is a price I can't afford," he said, was a common expression among the companies he talks to.
  • Isis started off slowly but has had a few significant announcements in the recent months. The venture managed to strike deals with the four major payment networks: Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, which was the first to sign up with ISIS.
  • Its plans are for a trial to begin next year in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas. Abbott said he wasn't worried that Isis was falling behind Google's own initiative.
  • Abbott is less concerned about timing because much of the infrastructure is still moving into place. Phones and merchant terminals need a technology called near-field communications to talk with each other. There are few terminals with the necessary NFC chip, and even fewer phones. The Nexus S is one of the few NFC-enabled devices, and is positioned as Google's flagship phone for Google Wallet. The upcoming Galaxy Nexus will also have NFC, as well as a number of other handsets including BlackBerrys.
  • ISIS is focused on building out the system, improving the customer experience, and making sure all of its partners will be ready. That includes the carriers, handset manufacturers, payment networks, banks and retailers, who all must be able to handle or direct a customer complaint if something goes wrong.
  • "We absolutely want to get out fast, but we won't put out anything until it's ready," he said. "The customer experience is infinitely more important than speed."
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