Mobile Payment Magazine

Mobile Payment Strategies Report: Opportunities & Markets 2011-2015

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Mobile Payment ReportA new study from Juniper Research has determined that the total value of mobile payments for digital and physical goods, money transfers and NFC (Near Field Communications) transactions will reach $670bn by 2015, up from $240bn this year. These forecasts represent the gross merchandise value of all purchases or the value of money being transferred.

The new Mobile Payment Strategies report revealed that all segments will exhibit 2x to 3x growth over the next five years. This growth will be driven by the rapid adoption of mobile ticketing, NFC contactless payments, physical goods purchases and money transfers as people in both developed and developing countries use their devices for everyday transactions. [Read more…]

Research Report: Mobile Payment Systems and Solutions

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Payments have been evolving for thousands of years. From the age-old bartering system, to cash, to check to electronic forms of payments, people have found innovative and more efficient ways to make a payment. This evolution has resulted in a significant shift in the current mix of consumer payments: from primarily paper-based (cash or check) to increasingly electronic (e.g. credit, debit and pre-paid) payment methods. The rate of change and the movement to electronic payments has been accelerated by the explosive growth of payments being made in non face-to-face transactions.

Billed as the future of banking, the value of financial transactions carried out through mobile phones has been pegged at $245 billion worldwide by 2014. At the same time, the number of users carrying out transactions using mobile money is expected to total 340 million by 2014, equivalent to 5% of existing mobile subscribers across the globe.

Research and Markets recently released a report entitled “Commerce on the Go: Mobile Payment Systems and Solutions.” The report evaluates mobile banking solutions, mobile banking SWOT analysis, Google Wallet SWOT analysis, competition between e-wallet solutions, and provides an analysis of the opportunities and market for mobile payments in the United States.

Audience:

– Mobile Network Operators

– Mobile Software Developers

– OSS/BSS Solution Providers

– Handset and Tablet Manufacturers

– Mobile Payment Service Providers

– Content and Applications Aggregators

– Mobile Marketing and Advertising Providers

– Telecommunications Infrastructure Providers

Report Index:

Executive Summary.
Money Transfers.
Mobile Payments Developments in Emerging Markets.
The Role of the Devices.
The Role of Mobile Operators.
Banks Role.
Technologies.
Future Trends.
Features.
E-Marketing.
Challenges.
Management Challenge.
Customers Expectations.
Security Problems.
Technical Challenges.
Solutions.
Current Mobile Payments Systems the End of the Credit Card Era and the Rise of the Wallet.
ISIS wallet.
Google Wallet and its SWOT Analysis.
Google Wallet Challenges and how to overcome it.
PayPal and Google Wallet.
Visa Wallet SWOT Analysis.
Serve by American Express E-wallet and its SWOT Analysis.
Google Wallet Verses ISIS Wallet.
Comparison between Current Wallet Systems.
Advantages of the M-payments Systems.
U.S Telecommunication Market Analysis.
Conclusions.
Worldwide Mobile Payment Market Analysis 2012-2017.
U.S Mobile Payment Market Analysis 2012-2017.
Mobile Payment Drivers for the U.S Market.
Deployment Mobile Payment System..
The Current U.S Mobile Payment Systems.
Mobile Payment Ecosystem..
Mobile Payment Models.
The Mobile Payment Methods.
Features of the Mobile Payment Ecosystem..
Bumps on the Road for M-payment.
The Features of Mobile Payments in the US and its ROI
The Conversion from Credit Cards to Mobile Payments Challenges and Opportunities.
Business Challenges.
Mobile Payment Regulatory in the U.S.
Market Potential for Mobile Phone Devices in Latin America.
The Market for Mobile Phone Devices in Latin America: 2011 – 2016.
The Latin American Mobile Market.
Introduction.
The Market in the Past.
The Market in 2004.
The Market in 2005.
The Market in 2006.
The Market in 2007 to 2010.
Conclusions.
Mobile Payment Providers in Latin America.
U.S Mobile Payment Providers Analysis.
XIPWIRE.
Advantages of XIPWIRE.
XIPWIRE vs. PayPal Mobile.
Zong.
Mopay.
Luup.
Bango.
eServGlobal

For more information: “Commerce on the Go: Mobile Payment Systems and Solutions.”

Source: Research & Markets

Chinese Company B.Shark to Extend Mobile Payment Offering to Physical Goods

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Years ago, operator billing was only applied for value-added services such as ringtones, ring back tones, wallpaper, news, music, and the like. Later it was applied to other fields such as mobile games, game tools and the mobile application market. Now, operator billing is extending to more and more fields, including physical goods payments. B.Shark, a Chinese company offering worldwide mobile payment solutions, now plans to extend its offerings to physical goods payment.

Operators are concerned about being a communication/data channel only, so some operators are reducing operator revenue share, especially reducing their own revenue share when it comes to physical goods payments. That is to say, when customers pay for physical goods via operator billing, merchants will receive a higher revenue share than for virtual goods. This strategy will increase the competitive power of operators when competing with banks.

“B.Shark will launch a physical goods payment solution with the cooperation of an overseas e-commerce platform,” according to the marketing director of B.Shark.

Other mobile payment companies, such as Paypal, Boku and Zong, are also planning to cooperate with e-commerce platforms in the field of physical goods payments.

Source: B.Shark

B.Shark Holds Forum on Who Will Play a Leading Roll in Mobile Payments

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B.Shark, a Chinese company offering worldwide mobile payment solutions, recently collaborated with SPforum, the largest microblog dedicated to the Mobile Internet industry in China, to hold a forum about who will play the leading role in worldwide mobile payments. The discussion was lively, and experts from Paypal and Alipay participated, among others.

Some highlights from the forum include:

  • “Telecom Operators, Financial Companies (such as Banks) and third-party payment companies (such as Alipay, Boku, Zong) are playing important roles in mobile payment,” said Mr. Peng, an expert from Paypal.
  • Operators have huge numbers of mobile subscribers and have a good understanding of  the behavior of mobile subscribers; and operators’ customer care centers can also be the customer service centers for mobile payment transactions.
  • The advantage of financial companies is that banks have the best understanding of customers’ payment behavior, and bank branches also can be the place to educate customers about how to use mobile payments.
  • Third-party payment companies, such as Alipay, Boku, Zong, Obopay and Square are playing a more and more important role in mobile payments. “Third-party payment companies always try to improve service for customers and integrate resource from different organizations in the payment value-chain; this is the advantage of third-party payment companies,” said Mr.Ding, an expert from Alipay.

In the area of global payments, mobile payment can be divided into three areas geographically. “In Asian countries, especially Japan and South Korea, with the strong support from operators, a large quantity of applications and services based on NFC drive NFC payment forward; In Africa, only around 20%-30% of adults have bank accounts, mobile payment via telecom networks are successful, M-Pesa in Kenya is an example; In America and Europe, the redit card industry is matured, however operators also try to play a role. For example, Everything Everywhere, O2 and Vodafone, formed a joint venture to accelerate the uptake of mobile commerce in the U.K, and AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon also formed a joint venture mobile company named Isis utilizing near-field communication (NFC) technology in the U.S.A,” said ZhongYuan, Zhang, COO of B.Shark. “The fact that eBay bought Zong for $240 million in cash, shows the value of third-party mobile payments focused on operator billing.”

The mobile payment chain is very long. It includes telecom operators, banks, third-party mobile payment companies, mobile phone producers, etc. When all the parties cooperate, the mobile payment will move faster and more smoothly.

Mobile Payment Startups

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Venmo was founded by under 30-year-old entrepreneurs Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail in Philadelphia. Fewer people carry cash these days and Kortina and Magdon-Ismail saw this as an opportunity to tackle the simple problem that comes with paying back friends and family while on-the-go. Venmo lets friends pay each other back for anything – lunch, dinner, drinks, rent, groceries, tickets, trips – whatever. It works with all the major banks in the US, like Bank of America, ING, Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, etc., making it very easy for users to adopt.

Overview of Mobile Payment options:

  • Venmo
  • Zong
  • Square
  • iZettle
  • Google Wallet
  • Starbucks
  • TabbedOut

Red full article, via Tech Cocktail.

Payment Methods for Chinese Social Networking Service (SNS) Games Exported to Southeast Asian Market

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As Chinese game developers rush to explore the overseas market, game operation as well as in-game payment systems have become a hot topic for game developers.

Chinese game developers are running their games in the overseas markets in a number of ways: First, through massive global social networks, such as Facebook;  other developers prefer to run the games on their own platforms, like Elex-tech; and still others distribute their games via local operators. Game developers who choose the last option are free from worrying about game operating and recharging systems as the agent takes care of that; but if they choose the first option, especially publishing games on Facebook, they need to operate the game on their own and choose their own payment methods.

Regardless of the new Facebook payment policies,  there are three payment methods on Facebook:

  • Facebook credit and PayPal that binds with users’ debit or credit cards;
  • Local game recharging cards;
  • Mobile billing

Facebook credit and PayPal is popular in European countries but rarely in Southeast Asia, as local users are not accusto med to using credit cards.

Compared with PayPal, the use of game recharging cards is more widespread. Game recharging cards such as MOL are popular in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, but rarely in Southeast Asia.

As for mobile billing, it is not restricted by sales outlets and it fits the users’ need of paying anytime and anywhere. People choose mobile billing mostly because of its lower risks and ease of use, so it is an important payment method. For some small game developers, it would be difficult for them to go directly to the operators, so a preferrable solution may be to select a mobile billing solution provider that can supply them with customized service, such as provided by B.Shark, Boku and Zong.

In conclusion, not one of the payment solutions is perfect; they are complementary with each other, and Social Networking Service (SNS) game developers should optimize their payment system in order to maximum their income.

Source: B.Shark

Chinese Mobile Game Developers Discuss Expansion to Overseas Markets

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Recently the SPforum Blog, the largest microblog dedicated to the Mobile Internet industry in China, held a forum with topics on how Chinese game developers can expand to overseas markets. The discussion was lively, and more than 100 top Chinese game developers participated.

Some highlights from the forum include:

  • Participants agreed that it is high time for the Chinese game developers to go global. As more opportunities have become available. Many agreed that Chinese developers should be more open and look beyond China to overseas markets. “We will be changed if we cannot change ourselves first,” said Zhishang Wang, CEO of SPforum Microblog.
  • Chinese developers should develop multi-language games for smart phones while developing single-language games for feature phones (non-smart phones). “It is better to develop games in several language versions at the same time since the smart phone AppStore is more often on a global scale,” said Gang Wu, CEO of WiSTONE Entertainment, a famous mobile game developer in China.
  • Games for smart phones can be distributed to Europe, Asia, and Latin America, while games for feature phones should be distributed to countries where Chinese feature phones are exported mostly, such as Vietnam, Thailand, Russia, Brazil, Nigeria, etc.
  • Games for Android can be distributed through third party Android Market. With China, for example, EOE and 1Mobile would be the most popular. These markets already have a large number of users in overseas markets. Games for feature phones can be distributed through the Sky-Mobi Platform, which is the largest Chinese AppStore in feature phones covering users in over 80 countries.
  • Game developers should adopt several payment solutions for its games and users will choose the best solution by themselves. The suggested payment solutions are Boku, Zong, Paypal, B.Shark, etc. B.Shark is the leading mobile payment solution provider in China that have premium short codes in 116 countries, covering 300+ operators, and B.Shark can offer faster after-sales service for Chinese game developers comparing with foreign payment solution providers.

“Chinese game developers should take advantage of Chinese resources when expanding to overseas market, such as quantity of Phone producers in China and those Chinese AppStore solution providers who focus on overseas markets,” said Zhongyuan Zhang, COO of B.Shark.

Source: B.Shark

 

eBay to Acquire Mobile Carrier Billing Provider, Zong

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-eBay Inc. announced today that it has agreed to acquire Zong, a leading provider of payments through mobile carrier billing, for total consideration of approximately $240 million in cash.

Zong leverages connections with more than 250 mobile network operators around the world, offering localized, secure and easy-to-use payments capabilities for digital goods and services in 21 languages and 45 countries. Combined with PayPal’s leading global payment platform serving 100 million active accounts worldwide, the company expects that Zong will add complementary technology and talent that help strengthen PayPal’s leadership position in mobile payments and digital goods. [Read more…]

PaymentOne Files Patent Infringement Suit Against Zong Inc.

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PaymentOne Corporation a mobile payments and carrier billing company,  has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Zong Inc., in the Northern District of California. In its complaint, PaymentOne asserts that Zong’s products and services infringe on multiple PaymentOne patents relating to phone number based validation, authentication, fraud control, and payments.

The complaint seeks unspecified damages and a court-ordered injunction against future infringement by Zong.

“For more than 10 years, PaymentOne has been at the forefront of developing and deploying technologies for carrier-based billing, mobile payments and advanced fraud protection,” said Joe Lynam, President and CEO of PaymentOne. “Since 2000, PaymentOne has invested significant time and money developing these proprietary technologies, and our systems have been deployed at numerous locations and merchants for much of this time. PaymentOne respects intellectual property rights and therefore has no choice but to aggressively pursue Zong and other companies that are infringing PaymentOne’s intellectual property.”

The asserted PaymentOne patents include United States Patent No. 7,080,049, entitled “Method And System For Processing A Transaction;” United States Patent No. 7,848,500, entitled “Method And Apparatus To Validate A Subscriber Line;” and United States Patent No. 7,848,504, entitled “Method And Apparatus To Validate A Subscriber Line.”

PaymentOne is represented in this action by the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP.

Source: MarketWire

Hottest Mobile Payment Startups

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Here’s a preliminary list of the hottest mobile payment startups.  Feel free to add to the conversation:

Carrier Billing

Purchase in App (not billed via carrier)

  • Apple (iTunes)

Contactless / Mobile Contactless:

P2P Transfer

Mobile Checkout

China

  • UMPay
  • SmartPay
  • LianLian

India

  • Paymate

Philippines

  • Globe GCASH

Japan

  • Mobile Suica
  • Edy

Reference: GusFundler