Posts Tagged ‘mobile payments’

On today’s Morning Media Menu (MP3 link), I joined GalleyCat editor Jason Boog for a recap of the MIT Sloan Hi-Tech conference in Cambridge, MA.

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CAMBRIDGE, MA –  Roughly 75 MIT students, alumni, and other technology professionals gathered at the inaugural MIT Sloan Hi-Tech conference on Friday to discuss emerging trends in mobile technology. In an afternoon keynote, Google VP of commerce and payments Stephanie Tilenius said that her company will be changing the look of Google’s classic blue links for mobile devices and will make obsolete the act of swiping a credit card.

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PayPal has announced that it is well on track to process $3 billion in mobile payments this year. The current number is a 50% increase on its previous projections according to which PayPal anticipated to rack in $2 billion in mobile revenues in 2011. In fall of 2010, PayPal projected that it will generate $1.5 billion in mobile revenues in 2011, a figure that it soon had to revise upwards to $2 billion.

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While Visa and Mastercard are racing to implement mobile payment solutions and Google slowly builds support for Near Field Communications (NFC), PayPal is continuing to add new services to its already existing mobile payment capability. Android users who have a PayPal account can now get an update to the PayPay mobile app that has the ability to capture check images for deposit in to your PayPal account.
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Square, the startup that lets mobile vendors take credit card payments through their phones has taken a jab at competitors by dropping its $0.15 per transaction fee.

Now Square says it will charge a flat 2.75% of any transaction, regardless of size. The goal is to make payments easier for users and combat hidden fees commonly seen in the credit card industry, according to General Manager Keith Rabois.

“In the end accepting payments should be as easy as using a microwave,” Rabois told TechCrunch.

Competitors such as Intuit’s GoPayment system charge the flat 15 cent fee per transaction in addition to taking a percentage cut.

Payments via the internet have necessarily been growing less and less complicated, and more and more mobile. Shoppers can send and receive payments via PayPal on their phones, they can send money via Twitter, and a technology called Near Field Communication will let people zap money into the pockets of vendors by simply waving their mobile devices over a receiver.

At this year’s Social Gaming Summit, I had the chance to sit down with David Marcus, the CEO and founder of Zong, a leading mobile payment provider. In short, they allow players to pay for virtual goods online by simply entering their mobile phone number and having the charges added to their mobile phone bill. They’ve been making waves by working directly with Facebook on several initiatives, including being one of the first to test their Facebook Credits platform, and have spread out to reach 176 carriers in 40 countries with their services. David had a lot of interesting insights about the burgeoning social games and virtual currency market.

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Payfone, a mobile payments operator, is well on its way to growth following a $11M Series B financing round from Opus Capital, BlackBerry Partners Fund and RRE Ventures. Payfone’s unique approach to mobile payments is in alignment with the future of mobile commerce, providing a secure and dynamic transactional infrastructure for merchants and one-click purchase options for consumers. Under the terms, Bob Borchers of Opus Capital and Kevin Talbot of BlackBerry Partners Fund will join as Payfone board members. Read more after the jump.

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Monetization of tweens is an issue facing many virtual worlds today. Recognizing its user base’s propensity for SMS, the tween-focused virtualworld Woozworld partnered with Zong to enable tweens to use the mobile payment platform’s simple and secure solutions to purchase virtual goods. Woozworld operates a virtual environment, targeted for 9-14 year olds, where players can create spaces, run activities and even their own business. The Montreal-based company spun off from its parent Tribal Nova last month and announced raising a $3m funding round which it is now using to expand offering for users and accelerate market traction.
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With Google Android devices outselling the iPhone for the first time last quarter, it’s no wonder that we’re starting to hear more about payment options on the Google device. One of the new offerings for Android application developers is to monetize their application using in-app payments from Fortumo. The service allows developers to easily integrate the payment offering into their applications and will allow users to make payments for virtual goods or services from within an application or game.

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The two most notable mobile payment companies in the social gaming industry, Boku and Zong, announced their support for the Android OS yesterday morning. The payment platforms will allow Android users to purchase items in-apps without leaving the app’s environment. This should be beneficial to both developers and consumers in America as well as the international arena because it streamlines the accessibility to payments without compromising user experience. Read more after the jump.

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