Mobile Payment Magazine

Verizon To Integrate American Express’ Payments on Mobile Phones And Tablets

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American Express and Verizon Wireless today announced they will integrate Serve, a next-generation digital payment and commerce platform, on many Verizon mobile phones and tablets. Over the coming months, Verizon Wireless customers will be able to establish Serve accounts that will enable them to make payments and redeem offers for goods and services directly from their mobile phones and tablets using Serve.

Serve simplifies the online checkout experience by authenticating a mobile number, then allowing a customer to make a purchase on-screen. Verizon Wireless customers who use Serve can expect to buy goods and services on their mobile phone in just a few clicks. Merchants who accept Serve mobile payments will enjoy a streamlined option for processing and settlement. The Serve card is currently accepted by the millions of merchants in the United States who accept American Express.

American Express and Verizon Wireless will also collaborate to source, distribute and simplify redemption of online and mobile offers with participating merchants through the use of the Serve account. For example, as customers redeem certain offers or coupons using their mobile phones, the credit may automatically appear in their Serve account.

The two companies are also working with Payfone to support Serve checkout on Verizon Wireless devices. Payfone’s pre-authorization and intelligent routing features will help Verizon Wireless customers who use the Serve application make mobile payments simply and securely.

“Our collaboration with Verizon highlights the speed at which Serve is evolving to reach a wide audience,” said Dan Schulman, group president, Enterprise Growth, American Express. “Verizon Wireless customers will soon be able to complement their busy lifestyle with a trusted payment platform that delivers a fast, flexible and secure way to manage their day-to-day mobile purchases, and together we’re taking the necessary steps to make mobile commerce a reality.”

Greg Haller, president, Enterprise & Government for Verizon Wireless, said, “Serve provides a quick and intuitive way for our customers to use their mobile service in a refreshingly convenient way. Our commitment to building the entire mobile payments ecosystem, through our Isis joint venture and now with Serve, gives customers incredible new ways to use their mobile devices.”

Source: Verizon Wireless

How ISIS Consortium Screwed Itself Out of Mobile Payments Market

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There has been a huge scrum amongst the smartphone players to capture the market for phone-based purchases. In a very surprising move, the major US-based carriers simply gave up. Isis, the mobile payment system sponsored by Verizon, AT&T and TMobile, announced that it had signed deals with Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover to its touch and go payment systems.

Why are US carriers not going after this incredibly lucrative market?

There’s actually a very simple reason. Payment providers require trust, and the US carriers decidedly do not have their customers’ trust.

Read more, via VentureBeat.

Payfone Appoints Matthew Tucker as CEO

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Payfone, a mobile payment processing service backed by American Express and Verizon, announced the appointment of veteran growth-stage company executive Matthew Tucker to the position of Chief Operating Officer. Tucker will drive the company’s global expansion and mobile payments adoption worldwide.

Tucker was most recently the President of Recyclebank, the Wall Street Journal’s 2011 number four-ranked “Next Big Thing” venture-backed company. Tucker brings to Payfone significant background in leveraging global relationships to successfully build and scale growth stage companies. Prior to Recyclebank, Tucker was CEO of Rely Software, and the first head of sales and marketing at Web-based banking pioneer LendingTree. [Read more…]

American Express and Payfone Partner for Global Mobile Checkout

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American Express  and Payfone  today announced a strategic alliance to create and power a new global mobile checkout service. As part of the agreement, Payfone will combine its advanced mobile authorization and payment services with American Express’ recently launched digital payments platform, Serve.

Working together, Serve and Payfone will provide consumers with the ability to make purchases from online merchants using their mobile phone number at checkout. Consumers will be able to link their mobile numbers to a variety of payment methods including their pre-or-postpaid mobile operator account, as well as via a customer’s Serve account.

“This alliance brings together Serve’s unified online, mobile and real-world functionality with Payfone’s advanced mobile authorization and payment services to deliver a seamless payment solution,” said Dan Schulman, Group President, Enterprise Growth, American Express. “The alliance is an important next step for the international roll out of Serve. We look forward to working with Payfone as we evolve the Serve platform to provide the most advanced payment solutions for buyers and sellers, while setting new standards in security, simplicity and reliability.”

Payfone can leverage the existing assets of mobile operators, such as the global SS7 signaling network for directly connected payment authorization and processing. This approach distinguishes Payfone from other competitors.

Payfone’s IP focuses on driving merchant’s sales conversion and revenue yield while managing fraud using new factors of authentication that are inherent in the mobile operator networks. For consumers, it means greater choice in payment methods and the most frictionless user experience, across any device.

“This relationship will be a defining force in the industry. By teaming up with American Express’ new digital payments platform, Serve, we are not only delivering greater choice to consumers and merchants, with one of the most comprehensive and advanced e-wallets in the industry, we are also enabling mobile operators to participate in the transaction flow and benefit from an entirely new revenue source,” said Rodger Desai, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Payfone. “Over 5 billion people worldwide currently have mobile phones, however less than 2 billion have credit cards. It’s our goal to make the mobile phone number the new accepted way to pay. We look forward to working with American Express and our mobile operator partners in defining and driving the mobile payments industry.

Source: Business Wire

Mobile Payments Research Report 2011: Battle in a Fragmented Market

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Research and Markets  has announced the addition of the “Mobile Payments – A Battle of Giants in a Fragmented Market” report to their offering.

This study spotlights the mobile payment market, provides details about the related services and their technological aspects, analyses the usages and the industrial structure with a drawn of the value chain. The report makes an in-depth look in examining several business models – for NFC, SMS, Fixed/mobile wallet & App Stores – their impacts and upcoming opportunities.

Key Questions

  • What are the different mobile payment services and which technologies are being used?
  • Who is using M-payment and how do they use it?
  • How are this emerging market and its value chain structured?
  • What are the existing business models and who is the furthest along with their deployments?
  • What are the market’s key figures and what are the main forces driving development?
  • What does the competition landscape look like?
  • What sustainable opportunities are available to the different kind of players?

Key Topics Covered:

  • 1. Executive Summary
  • 2. Introduction
  • 3. Market structure and key factors
  • 4. Organisation & Industrial Strategy
  • 5. Strategic analysis
  • Tables
  • Figures

Companies Mentioned:

  • Amazon Mobile Payments
  • American Express
  • Apple
  • BarclayCard
  • Billing revolution
  • Boku
  • Carrefour
  • Deutsche Telekom
  • Facebook
  • Gemalto
  • Google
  • McDonald
  • MoBeePay
  • NFC
  • Nokia
  • NTT docomo
  • Obopay
  • Orange
  • PayPal
  • PTC
  • Sprint
  • Starbucks
  • Subway
  • Telecom Italia
  • Telefonica
  • Venmo
  • Verifone
  • Visa
  • Zong

More information: Research and Markets

U.S. Mobile Payment Market to Top $200 Billion by 2015, Says Research Report

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A recent report from Aite Group forecasts that U.S. mobile bill payments will reach more than $200  billion in 2015.

Aite Group interviewed more than 60 companies in the Fall of 2010 and produced a 65 page report that defines and segments the mobile payment industry, and includes an analysis of the competitive and market trends.

Each one of the multiple categories of mobile payments defined in the report will experience double-digit growth, with mobile payments accounting for  US$214 billion in gross dollar volume by 2015, up from US$16 billion in 2010–a 68% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2010 and 2015.

The report references the following companies: Allstate, Amazon, American Express, Apple, AT&T, Bango, Bank of America, Barclays, Bill2Mobile, BlackBerry, Bling Nation, BOKU, Brink’s, C-Sam, Cashedge, Cellfire, Chase, Chase Paymentech, Cimbal, ClairMail, coupons.com, Coupons Sherpa, Visa’s Cybersource, Device Fidelity, Diebold, Discover, Eagle Eye Solutions, eBay, Euronet, Facebook, First Data, FIS, Fiserv, Foursquare, Gemalto, Global Payments, Google, Gowalla, Green Dot, Groupon, Harland Financial Services, Heartland Payment Systems, Hipcricket, iLoop Mobile, Inside Contactless, Intuit, Jack Henry/iPay Technologies, Kubra, MasterCard, mFoundry, Mobile Coupons, Mocapay, MoneyGram, Monitise Group, mopay, MyWebGrocer, NCR, NetSpend, Nokia, Oberthur Technologies, Obopay, OfferIQ, Online Resources, PayPal, Plastyc, Pyxis Mobile, Research-in-Motion (RIM), Roam Data (Ingenico), Roamware, Rocketbuxx, SK C&C USA, Square, Starbucks, Sybase, T-Mobile, Tetherball, 3i Infotech, Tier Technologies, TransferTo, TSYS, Twitter, U.S. Bank, VeriFone, Verizon, Vesta, Visa, ViVOtech, Waspit, Way Systems, Western Union, Wincor Nixdorf, WirelessLoyalty, Xipwire, Yelp, and Zong.

More information: Aite Group Mobile Payment Report.

Source: Aite Group