Mobile Payment Magazine

The State of Mobile Payments: 2015

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To most Americans and Europeans, the mobile payments industry is just starting to get off the ground. With Facebook’s option to send money to friends via mobile, new offerings from Square Pay, and the recent release of iPhone 6 and Apple Pay, TechCrunch reports that 2015 seems like the “Year of Mobile Payments.” But the fact is that a lot of these options are way behind what’s happening in other parts of the world.

There’s a distinction between these “mobile wallets” which merely link a user’s credit or debit card to their mobile device, and mobile money, where your phone actually holds the value like a mini-bank. Mobile Money is proliferating in many parts of the world where access to traditional banking is not available to many, and it’s in these places in Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, where mobile money is really taking off, advancing far beyond what is available to people in Europe and North America.
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Wallet Wars: The Battle for Payments is Just Starting

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Starbucks created a lot of buzz about mobile payments when the company release it’s popular mobile payment app in 2011, and indeed Starbucks was on the vanguard of consumer retail mobile payments. And by most measures the Starbucks app should be considered a success. CEO Howard Schultz told investors during a recent earnings call: “Today in the U.S. alone over 13 million customers are actively using our mobile apps and we’re now averaging over 7 million mobile transactions in our stores each week, representing roughly 16% of total tender, more than any other bricks and mortar retailer in the marketplace.” That’s impressive.
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Why Apple Pay Has Been Struggling in China

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apple-pay-logoApple has been courting banks in China since last year, trying to get them on board with the company’s new payment system, but so far most of that work has proved fruitless. UnionPay, the only bank allowed to make interbank bank payments in China, has yet to sign up for Apple Pay, and talks with eight other banks have gone nowhere as well. In a country that’s eager for Apple products this is especially troubling. Why all the pushback? According to MarketWatch, Chinese banks believe Apple is simply asking too much money for its mobile payment transactions. [Read more…]

Apple Pay Plans November 2015 Launch in Canada

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apple-pay-logoApple Pay is planning to launch in Canada in November, 2015, and is currently in negotiations with six of the countries largest banks, which hold over 90% of retail accounts there. Canada is a particularly attractive market for Apple, because the company holds 34% of the Canadian smartphone market according to Catalyst, and many retail stores are already set up for contactless payment. A final deal has not yet been reached, however, because the banks are concerned about Apple’s fees, and security issues, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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Full Society Restaurant Mobile Payment App Launches IndieGoGo Funding Campaign

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full-society-logoUp-and-coming tech startup Full Society has launched an IndieGoGo campaign to fund the final stages of development for its mobile payments app. The app’s primary purpose is for customers to pay their bill via mobile phone. However, once completed, the app also allows restaurant goers to donate to select charities.
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LG Uplus to offer mobile payment service for Chinese customers

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LG Uplus announced today that it will offer a new mobile payment service in China in collaboration with KB Kookmin Card and China Union Pay. When customers download Union Pay-branded mobile credit cards, they can make payments through near field communication (NFC) in China and Korea, starting in July, 2015.

Union Pay has set up the NFC payment terminal at more than 5 million stores in China. The cooperation with Union Pay is essential for entering the payment industry in China. [Read more…]

Trustonic and Mobeewave Partner to Provide Increased Security in Mobile Payments

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Trustonic and Mobeewave have partnered to provide quicker and safer contactless payments for both merchants and consumers. The partnership of the two companies will allow Mobeewave-enabled NFC devices to reach best-in-class security level for accepting contactless transactions with a mobile.

In today’s mobile and connected world a seamless user experience and flawless security is paramount. The combination of Mobeewave’s expertise in mobile acceptance with the security features of the Trustonic TEE provides end-to-end secure Mobile Point of Sale (mPOS) infrastructure for taking contactless card and wallet payments.

Up to now mPOS solutions have not completely secured the interaction with consumers on mobile devices unless merchants used add-on devices. By downloading the Mobeewave mPOS application into merchant mobile devices supporting the Trustonic technology, consumers will be able to securely tap their contactless card or smartphone against the merchant’s mobile device. The Trustonic TEE technology secures the interaction with the cardholder on the merchant’s device itself by leveraging the Trusted User Interface.

This system not only benefits both established retailers who want to provide more flexibility and a better user experience, as well as small and mobile merchants who can’t afford the complex traditional POS infrastructure set up.

“There is a lot of traction for mobile payment acceptance right now. Partnering with Trustonic will definitely fast-track the adoption of this next revolution in mobile payment“, said Benjamin du Haÿs, CEO & co-founder of Mobeewave. “We’re happy to complement our offer by leveraging Trustonic’s innovative top-of-class platform. We believe that the NFC mPOS key use case will highlight the need for better security as TEE can provide”, said Maxime de Nanclas, COO & Co-founder of Mobeewave

“The continuing trend for contactless payments changing the way we buy and sell has resulted in a need for more trust in our mobile devices”, said Olivier Leger, EVP S&M Trustonic. “Mobeewave’s mPOS platform combined with Trustonic TEE provides an enhanced, safer and more streamlined digital experience for all parties.”

Source: Business Wire

The Economist Explains: The Security of Smartphone Payments

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Apple Pay is already available to many iPhone users, but the iWatch, which allows consumers to buy things with little more than a wave of the wrist, could significantly accelerate adoption among Apple customers and retailers. Assuming, that is, that users warm to the new payments technology enough to get over fears about stolen accounts. They should. Smartphone-based payments are typically more secure than credit cards. Why is that? [Read more…]