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Contact UsLatest Mobile Payments News
Consumers leary mobile payments are being used to plunder personal information
Mobile technology is growing at a rapid pace, so using our smartphones is becoming more important by the day. We already can go everywhere with access to our emails, social networks, and documents — so wallets is the next thing. Being able to leave your wallet home and still be able to pay for things is the ultimate kind of convenience. Unfortunately, most people don’t feel this way. According to a new survey by law professors at the University of California Berkeley, most Americans are uneasy with the idea that … Read more
Charles West
Yo Time allows retailers in Zimbabwe to give shoppers airtime instead of change
You’ve probably heard that in some countries mobile airtime is as good as cash. In Zimbabwe it could be even better, with one company allowing retailers to give shoppers airtime instead of change. The problem is that Zimbabwean dollar was abandoned in 2009, forcing people to use other currencies to pay for goods in the country, with US dollar leading the way. However, when purchases don’t add up to a whole-dollar amount, shoppers are forced either to buy an extra item to make the total round up or accept a … Read more
Dusan Belic
Casual dining chain allows guests to pay with their smartphones
Casual dining chain T.G.I. Friday’s launched iOS and Android apps and right from the bat they allow users to pay with their phones. In order to use this handy functionality, start a tab the moment you sit at a local T.G.I. Friday’s, keep track of all the drinks and meals you had, and finally pay with a tap of the button. Of course that’s just one piece of the puzzle, with the application also allowing you to locate nearby T.G.I. Friday’s, check out special drinks and menu promotions, and learn … Read more
Dusan Belic
Square to process $5 billion in payments this year
Square, the cool mobile payment platform, is growing increasingly by the day, as the company just released some impressive stats. According to a Bloomberg report, Square is now processing $5 billion in annual payments (or around $416 million in payments per month), which is up from $4 billion in annual payments in March. Not bad for a one-year old startup, huh? As a Square user myself, one thing that drove me crazy about the payments service was transactions that took a few business days to complete, but now this seems … Read more
Charles West
PayPal Here already has more than 200,000 merchants on board
Roughly a month ago PayPal unveiled its Square-like device for accepting credit card payments for smartphone and tablet users – PayPal Here. During the first 24 hours, the company said it received 1,000 sign-ups per hour, and now they say more than 200,000 merchants are on board. Initially, the triangular dongle was available to select merchants in the US, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong, and during this (second) quarter it is expected to hit additional markets. Unlike Square, which is still a US-centric service, PayPal Here was global from the … Read more
Dusan Belic
Boston MBTA launching the first smartphone rail ticketing system in the US
Hey Bean Towners, you may be the first people in the nation to order and display commuter rail tickets using your smartphone. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority recently announced that it’s hiring Masabi to administer a new smartphone ticketing system for the MBTA commuter rail that services Boston and its suburbs. Using the ticketing system, customers can buy rail tickets or add funds to their “Charlie Card” with their phone. The system also uses a visual ticketing app that customers can use instead of paper tickets. Each visual ticket has an … Read more
Kelly Hodgkins
Intuit GoPayment launches its card-swiping accessory/service in Canada
Square may have pioneered the credit card-swiping mobile payments, but Intuit beat it to the punch in Canada. Yep, their GoPayment is now live in the country allowing anyone to accept card payments with nothing but their iPhone — with BlackBerry and Android versions in development as we speak. The device itself is free and you’ll be paying a small percentage only when accepting payments: 3.3% if you manually enter digits or 2.7% per swipe. Moreover, there are no setup fees, monthly minimums, or any kind of commitments; as soon … Read more
Dusan Belic
Juniper Research: 340 million mobile users will transfer money domestically by 2016
According to new report from Juniper Research, the number of consumers using mobile handsets to make person to person (P2P) domestic money transfers will reach 340 million by 2016, up from 84 million in 2011. The study titled “Mobile Money Transfer & Remittances” suggests that Safaricom’s MPESA service in Kenya inspired both network operators and financial service providers in developing markets to use mobile distribution mechanisms as a means of enabling unbanked/underbanked consumers to access financial services for the first time. Carriers on their end get to increase ARPU while … Read more
Dusan Belic
Intuit acquires AisleBuyer to beef-up its mobile commerce operations
As part of the strategy to enhance its standing in the mobile commerce market, Intuit has acquired AisleBuyer, a startup whose service allows consumers to skip the lines and order products directly from the merchant. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but BostInno thinks Intuit has paid some $100 million for the company. Moreover, we know that AisleBuyer’s founder Andrew Paradise hopes to help Intuit create the “best small business POS solutions in the world.” AisleBuyer consists of several services — including mClerk, mShop and mDine — which allow … Read more
Dusan Belic
Juniper Research: Mobile tickets to quadruple by 2016
In its new report, Juniper Research is examining the mobile ticketing business, forecasting that the number of tickets delivered to mobile phones worldwide will more than quadruple to 23 billion by 2016, compared with 4 billion tickets estimated to have been delivered last year. The research company says that mobile ticketing solves key problems for facility operators whether in the transport or events markets, allow them [operators] to sell and deliver tickets without the need for extra staff or real estate. The report warns, however, that mobile ticketing applications must … Read more
Dusan Belic
Google buys TxVia, tries to make us care about Google Wallet yet again
We’re quickly approaching Google Wallet’s 1 year birthday. Announced on May 26, 2011, Google hasn’t exactly accomplished their goal of replacing the various plastic cards you carry with you on a daily basis. Why? At the end of the day it comes down to politics. Who establishes the relationship with the consumer, who gets to sneak a peak at the data trail they leave behind as they go about their day and buy things, who gets to keep what percentage of each transaction, that sort of bullshit. All the technical … Read more
