The mobile payments industry is evolving quickly, so our staff has gathered some of the interesting mobile payments stories we’ve enjoyed reading over the past week. Let us know what you’ve been reading in the comments section below.
More than a smartphone: The New York Times recently reported on the companies contending for a piece of the mobile wallet. With no clear leader in the space everyone from banks, credit card companies, payment networks and mobile phone carriers are trying to find where they can fit into the mobile wallet, and how they will get paid. According to the New York Times, the mobile wallet provides a big opportunity, “The stakes are enormous because small, hidden fees that are generated every time consumers swipe their cards add up to tens of billions of dollars annually in the United States alone.”
Google’s jump into NFC: This week, Google announced that they are teaming with MasterCard and CitiGroup to embed technology into Android devices, making a strong push into the NFC space. VeriFone Systems, who makes credit-card readers for cash registers, will play a large role in the announcement as the company plans to roll out more credit-card readers that enable consumers to pay by simply tapping their smartphones. The Wall Street Journal, who broke this week’s news, wrote “The planned payment system would allow Google to offer retailers more data about their customers and help them target ads and discount offers to mobile-device users near their stores, these people said. Google isn’t expected to get a cut of the transaction fees.”
AMEX and Visa, on your phone: American Express has followed in Visa’s footsteps and released a payment service that allows Android and iPhones to be utilized for person-to-person (P2P) online payments. The service, named Serve, is also available through Facebook and Serve.com. CIO Magazine reported, “Serve also allows users to create and manage sub-accounts for friends and family members to, for example, pay a child’s allowance or a dog walker fee.”