Search engine giant Google has been trying to diversify their sources of revenue for years. They hardly make any money off the services they offer and if it wasn’t for advertising they wouldn’t even exist. With the latest version of Android, Google’s mobile operating system, basic support for near field communication (NFC) technology was added. Many of us hoped that it would be used for something useful like mobile payments, but it instead offered the ability to read NFC tags and not much else. A new job ad on Google’s site however indicates that the company is looking to enter the mobile commerce space in a big way and it’ll leverage NFC technology. The position is for a “Technical Account Manager, Mobile Commerce” to be based out of either Mountain View or San Francisco. This person will be responsible for “Google’s strategic partnerships and initiatives across a variety of partnerships that include merchants, issuers, point-of-sales (POS) solution providers, mobile OEMs, etc.”
Said person is required to have at least 5 years of experience dealing with: “NFC/RFID technologies, different chipset ISO specifications, integration with POS readers & systems and payment processing, technical implementation of merchant loyalty, coupon or incentive programs.” If there was any doubt as to whether or not Google would try to enter the mobile space, this job ad pretty much destroys that uncertainty. Late last month Google purchased a Canadian firm called Zetawire who owned a key patent for building a “mobile banking, advertising, identity management, credit card and mobile coupon transaction processing” solution. It’s possible that members of that firm left after being bought out, but we can’t really speculate on that.
What is known is that the long overdue dream of being able to pay for everyday goods using your mobile phone is soon going to become a reality. If this job ad was just put up now, then I’d imagine that within the next 2 years we’ll see something hit the market.
[Via: NFC World]