Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of March 19, 2012

The Mobile Commerce News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking and mobile security that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

PayPal unveiled a new service that allows smartphones to process credit card transactions. Known as PayPal Here, the service takes the handset beyond a tool for consumers to make payments, to a terminal for merchants too, reflecting the changing balance of the company's business. Read Original Content

MasterCard has launched its Mobile Money partnership program with Indian mobile services provider Comviva, mobile messaging service Sybase 365, and a Singapore-based mobile financial services company Utiba as initial partners. The MasterCard Mobile Money Partnership Program is a global initiative by MasterCard to provide financial services to more than 2.5 billion financially under-served consumers worldwide through their mobile phones. Read Original Content

According to the annual Q1 Merchant Survey conducted by the Direct Response Forum, a majority of retailers, 63 percent of respondents, indicated that only 2 percent or less of their sales are generated from a mobile device. Only 17 percent reported that mobile sales are over 10 percent. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software, Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

A recent NielsenWire report shows the top five retail mobile apps and sites together, belonging to Amazon, Best Buy, eBay, Target and Walmart, managed to reach nearly 60 percent of all smartphone users during the holiday season at the end of last year, up from 53 percent in October. Read Original Content


Gap recently ran a two-week campaign that used location to drive users to nearby stores with a mobile coupon. The Gap campaign placed ads on bus shelters in major cities that were tied to a mobile offer using geolocation. The retailer worked with advertising company Titan on this initiative. Read Original Content

A new report from Nielsen indicates that Smartphone owners of both genders prefer retailers’ mobile websites over mobile apps, with men slightly more likely to try retailers’ mobile apps than women. However, consumers who use retailers’ mobile apps tend to spend more time on them. Read Original Content

A new study by Juniper Research forecasts that NFC will facilitate transactions valued at $74 billion by 2015 as NFC is increasingly used for the payment of goods in-store and as transport tickets. Read Original Content

PayPal is preparing to launch a credit-card reading device that competes with Square’s larger NFC-based mobile payment contenders. PayPal plans to expand into physical stores with a credit-card reading dongle, similar to those used by Square, Intuit's GoPayment and Verifone's PAYware. Read Original Content

The number of logins via mobile devices to access National Australia Bank's online banking service has risen about 65 percent over the past five months. NAB group executive Gavin Slater said one-third of the bank's net banking logins were done via mobile devices. In October, the figure was around one in five. Read Original Content

Telefonica Digital is participating in a $35 million funding round for mobile payments firm Boku that also includes venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures. Boku, which started in 2008, has raised $75 million so far and operates in 67 countries through 250 mobile network operators. Read Original Content

During a panel discussion at Xconomy's Mobile Madness forum, three mobile payment entrepreneurs said the mobile payment market will be messy for at least a few years as multiple companies come out with their own mobile payment platforms and scramble to get merchants to adopt them as their mobile payment method of choice. Read Original Content

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Taubman Centers have collaborated to establish Fox Movie Mall virtual storefronts. Consumers decide which movie they want from a “wallscape” display and use a mobile app to scan their chosen title’s QR code, which then takes them to an online store where they can make their purchase and have it mailed to their home. Read Original Content

While efforts are being made to move away from plastic, consumers are reluctant to adopt mobile payments because they're unclear of the benefit they provide and security concerns persist. Many people also don't have the technology. Read Original Content

The number of transactions that are handled by MasterCard’s payment services is expected to almost double in the next six years, to 53 billion. The reason, according to analysts, is because of the company’s extensive growth in the world of mobile payments. Read Original Content

According to Auriemma Consulting Group, approximately 30 percent of U.S. consumers would purchase new NFC-enabled smart phones or upgrade their current devices. The remaining 70 percent of consumers are not interested in mobile commerce at all. Of these people, 73 percent cited security concerns as the reason for their disinterest. Read Original Content

The spread of mobile phones in rural areas across the globe is helping cash to flow more easily by cutting red tape, fees and enabling instant transfers. Mobile phone subscriptions have crossed six billion and more than 4.2 billion people out of the 7 billion people worldwide use at least one cellphone — which will become the preferred device for not only communication, but also for m-commerce. Read Original Content

Recent Articles by Kevin Benedict



*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Artificial Intelligence and Your Soul - An Interview with David Espindola

Digital Twins Film Project - Premier

Insuring Against Cyber Threats with Expert Bob Parisi