Mobile Payment Magazine

Millennial Media Mobile Ad Network Raises $27.5 Million

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Mobile ad network Millennial Media has raised $27.5 million in new funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Columbia Capital, Charles River Ventures, and New Enterprise Associates. This investment has brought the Baltimore-based company’s total funding to more than $65 million.

Millennial, which is the largest remaining independent ad network (AdMob was bought by Google and Apple acquired Quattro), has had a banner year as the mobile advertising market explodes. In terms of mobile advertising marketshare, the IDC estimates Millennial follows in a close third to both Google and Apple. Millennial’s ads reach 63 million of a total of 77 million mobile web users in the U.S., or 81 percent of the U.S. mobile web.

Read More: TechCrunch.

Mopay Forecasts Major Growth for Mobile Payments Industry in 2011

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mopay, a payment solutions provider for online merchants, forecasts major momentum and movement in the global mobile payments industry in 2011. mopay has identified several trends to watch in 2011 that will have a significant impact on the burgeoning mobile payments industry, including massive growth of the market in North America, increased consolidation and lower transaction costs.

In 2011, mopay estimates the following industry trends will occur:

  • Mobile payments will become a significant method to pay for goods and services online. AT&T and Verizon Wireless have recently announced they will open their networks, signaling a major opportunity for mobile payment penetration in the U.S. In 2011, mopay predicts that major merchants, particularly ecommerce merchants, will add mobile as means of payment and it will become ubiquitous before the 2011 holiday season.
  • 2011 will be known as the year of major investments and consolidation in the global mobile payments industry. In 2010, there was much discussion on this topic as major venture capital deals closed. In 2011, the opportunity for increased consolidation is plentiful, with major industry players – such as credit card issuers, handset manufacturers, telecommunications companies and blue-chip Internet heavyweights – likely to acquire top mobile payment providers.
  • New forms of currency will continue to grow. Facebook Credits launched in 2010 and have already emerged as a meaningful form of currency. Many players in the payment space have introduced their own virtual currency in recent months, but it’s questionable if all of them make sense and will survive. In 2011, major entertainment and social networking providers will continue to introduce their individual forms of currency or branded checkout system.
  • Mobile payments will officially expand beyond the digital realm and into the physical goods environment across the globe. Almost all mobile payment providers are currently focusing their products and deals on virtual and digital goods merchants. This is about to change; mopay already supports the purchase of physical goods through its platform in 28+ countries, and expects this number to go up significantly in 2011 as the acceptance of mobile payments will grow rapidly. Korea and Japan, where mobile payments for physical goods is commonplace, are good examples of how mopay sees the payment future in the physical goods space.
  • Lower transaction costs will be available from all major U.S. carriers. A virtual good has a margin which still makes high transaction costs commercially feasible. Digital goods, often bounded with royalties and concessions, require much lower transaction fees; the usually high production cost and thus low margin of physical goods almost always rules out high transaction fees. The mobile payments industry has joined forces with mobile network operators globally to find a remedy. Although mobile payment transactions will remain more expensive than traditional credit card transactions, 2011 will see major movement towards the new global transaction cost benchmark of 10-15 percent.

“This past year was a boom year for the mobile payments industry around the globe. With the foundational work that occurred in 2010 past us, 2011 is shaping up to be the year that mobile payments see widespread penetration around the globe,” said Kolja Reiss, managing director of mopay, Inc. “At mopay, we have been thrilled to see that the leadership we built in Europe and Asia is resonating in North America; U.S. consumers and merchants alike are ready for mobile payments and we predict that 2011 will be a true turning point for the industry.”

Source: Business Wire

Wells Fargo to Conduct Mobile Payment Trial in San Francisco

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Using 200 of its San Francisco staff, the bank will test mobile-phone payments for six months—and may launch a commercial service soon after. Wells Fargo (WFC) is again trying to make mobile payments at restaurants and retailers mainstream, three years after an earlier attempt lost steam. Peter Ho, product manager of card services at the bank, led a test several years ago that let executives use a Nokia phone, rather than a debit or credit card, to pay for fast food and other items. While he liked the convenience, Wells Fargo didn’t end up offering the service to customers, partly because only the one handset was capable of transmitting payment information at the time.

This month, Ho gets another chance as the bank kicks off a mobile-payment trial with 200 employees in San Francisco using a technology that can be inserted into existing phones with microSD cards. To make payments at participating retailers, employees will simply open the Wells Fargo Mobile Banking app, select the pay-with-phone button. and wave the phone in front of special mobile-payment readers.

“We have made an investment in this technology, and we hope this investment pays off,” says Ho, who declined to give the amount of the investment in so-called near-field communications (NFC) technology that uses short-range wireless connections to transfer payment or other information between devices.

via BusinessWeek.

Webinar: Best Practices in Mobile Commerce for 2011 – Jan. 26, 2011, 3 PM

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The 2010 holiday season posted record sales in mobile commerce. Track  mobile commerce’s progress over the holidays, lessons learned and best practice for 2011 in this free Webinar.

Many retailers launched mobile sites, applications and other mobile initiatives to either drive sales on the medium or to retail stores. What were the lessons learned from these mobile commerce initiatives?

Mobile Commerce Daily is hosting this webinar, featuring Andrew Koven, president of ecommerce and customer experience at Steve Madden, New York, and Joy Cicman Liuzzo, senior director at market researcher InsightExpress.

Mobile Commerce Daily editor in chief Mickey Alam Khan will moderate.

Topic

Happy Holidays or Not: Mobile Commerce Lessons Learned, and Best Practice for 2011

Date and time

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2 p.m. – 3 p.m. ET

Focus

A recap of how mobile commerce performed over the 2010 holidays, what went right and what could have been done better, and best practice for 2011. Research on mobile shopping behavior will also be presented.

Themes

  • What did retailers and brands get right with mobile in the 2010 holidays?
  • Examples of retailers that integrated mobile in the holiday mix: popular strategies and tactics
  • The Steve Madden case study: how the footwear and apparel retailer deployed mobile in the multichannel context, what worked, what did not and takeaways for 2011
  • Research from InsightExpress on mobile holiday behavior
  • What opportunities did retailers miss by not including mobile
  • Lessons learned
  • Best practice for 2011

More info and registration: Webinar Registration

FaceCash Mobile Payment Uses Photo for Added Security in Mobile Payment System

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FaceCashCombining barcode technology and  a smartphone app, along with a photo-security feature, Think Computer Corporation’s FaceCash mobile payment system lets consumers pay for items at the point of sale, with a mobile phone.

The company plans to develop an integrated payment and accounting network called ThinkLink, with FaceCash as the first component of that system to launch. FaceCash operates as a simple debit from a consumer’s pre-funded account.

Because many merchants may already have the existing barcode hardware, along with a low transaction fee of 1.5%, the system is likely to be a low-cost implementation, though they may have some tough competition from the big existing player’s like Visa or MasterCard. The company’s success in this area hinges on merchant adoption.

However, many small merchants are likely to be tempted by the use of existing barcode hardware and lower rates, as well as a desire to move away from the established credit card companies and their big corporate prices and reputations. In concept, it’s a lot of things that your larger and financial companies don’t offer, and FaceCash may leapfrog those industries, if done right.

FaceCash uses simple barcode technology to facilitate quick  payment transactions in restaurants, clothing stores, and other retail shops. The system offers  the ability to record multiple account numbers directly within the FaceCash application. Buyers also have access to a good amount of  detail about their purchases because an  electronic receipt is automatically generated each time a FaceCash transaction takes place.

A particularly nice feature that is not available in most other mobile transaction system is that FaceCash records line item transaction data–so buyers get item details about their purchases–not just the total amount spent.

The application can be used with any participating merchant, so that it is no longer necessary to download a different mobile application for each vendor. Unlike other mobile payment systems, buyers do not need cases, stickers, dongles, attachments, or any other kind of extra hardware.

On the merchant side, there  is one flat rate for processing a FaceCash transaction: 1.5%. This rate represents a savings for most sellers of over 50% compared to existing electronic payment solutions, as aggregate credit card processing fees tend to average 3.2% per transaction (or higher) for most small merchants, with some card processors charging as much as 5% per transaction. Set up costs are also relatively low since FaceCash just requires a computer with internet access and an inexpensive barcode scanner at the point of sale, which many sellers already own. For those that need hardware, all of the necessary equipment is available for purchase.

FaceCash works on debit basis. Consumers pre-fund their FaceCash accounts by transferring money from a checking or savings account, and can then debit their available balance by making purchases. FaceCash gets its name from the patent-pending security technology built into the system, which relies on an image of the buyer’s face to positively verify identity. Whenever a FaceCash purchase is made, the buyer’s face appears on the seller’s web-based point of sale system. The first time a buyer makes a purchase, the seller confirms that the photograph is accurate using the buyer’s driver’s license. A number of other security measures are built into the system.

Free FaceCash native applications are available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry phones. Those with other types of phones can still use FaceCash through the mobile web client, and those with no phones at all can even use FaceCash via a paper wallet card generated during the sign up process, much like a printable boarding pass.

More info: FaceCash

Mobile Trends for 2011: Survey Results

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Mobile Industry Survey 2011Mobile Payments Magazine launched in response to the tremendous interest in mobile payments and commerce in 2010, and based on a recent survey of executives in the industry, mobile payments is predicted to be a breakout category in 2011, followed by mobile commerce, mobile advertising, and mobile coupons.

According to the  survey respondents, the big winners in this trend would be credit card companies such as Visa and MasterCard, followed by wireless operators, and eventually companies like Google, PayPal, and smartphone makers. Bringing up the rear were startups, though the makeup of the respondents should be considered (categories are shown in the survey).

Executives surveyed thought that Google and Microsoft would make the biggest acquisitions, and more than 90% of those surveyed believe mobile advertising spending would increase by more than 100%, with about 55% putting that number at a 200-300 percent increase.

The survey results include dozens of questions and 24 charts and graphs to illustrate the results. It was conducted by consulting company Chetan Sharma.

More information: 2011 Mobile Industry Predictions Survey Results.

Mobile Payment Players to Watch in 2011

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As consumers increasingly adopt smartphone technology and all the new app’s that go with it, mobile payment is becoming much more used and accepted, and companies including Google, Apple, and other smartphone players are providing mobile-payment enabling technologies such as near-field communications (NFC) into their devices, while other service like Foursquare and ShopKick are engaging consumers at the point-of-purchase locations like never before.

Editors at Advertising Age have done a round-up of some potentially hot product and services offerings for 2011, covering PayPal, Rightcliq, Square, iConcessionStand,  and Zong.

“The rewards for savvy brands that build relationships with consumers on these new payment platforms go beyond just publicity and profit – it may just be a way to create meaningful relationships with consumers at the point of purchase and far beyond.”

More: Meet the Next-Generation Payments Systems Set to Drive Future Commerce.

Square

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Square is a revolutionary service that enables anyone to accept credit cards anywhere. Square offers an easy to use, free credit card reader that plugs into a phone or iPad. It’s simple to sign up. There is no extra equipment, complicated contracts, monthly fees or merchant account required.

Co-founded by Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey in 2009, the company is headquartered in San Francisco with additional offices in Saint Louis and New York City.

More information: Square.

Usablenet

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Usablenet works with Fortune 500 companies to extend their web site to any customer, via Mobile, Facebook shops, Apps, Kiosks and Assistive versions.

Usablenet makes sure customers can access any aspect of a company’s website from wherever they are, without requiring client resources.

Usablenet powers over 185 clients, allowing them to comprehensively support their customers on a variety of platforms.

Founded in 2000, Usablenet is based in New York City, London and Italy.

Usablenet Mobile allows client customers to buy products or services, get information, and get support via any mobile phone anywhere. This means putting the decision of when and where to buy client product in their customers’ hands, literally, and in so doing, capture the enormous value of the mobile world.

Source: Usablenet