In a recent article, Gigaom draws out some of the most interesting moves that each of the big 3 payment networks are making in mobile payments.
The most interesting overall observation is that many of these moves are unproven, high risk and somewhat scattered. Visa is teaming up with Square, MasterCard is joining forces with Google and Amex has partnered with Payfone. This goes to show that none of the big players have yet figured out where the industry is going and seem unwilling to place more than a few chips on any one technology.
It is also noticeable that Visa and MasterCard are considerably more active when it comes to partnering with technology players than Amex. From a cultural perspective this may not be surprising, seeing as V/MC have based their entire business models on being open networks, whereas Amex has built a closed-loop, proprietary network. Still, in a highly uncertain market, V/MC's model may prove more nimble and adaptable than Amex' and may provide a crucial head start.
Among all the partnerships that have been announced, the most interesting in my mind, would be MC's venture with Google. I absolutely believe that Google will be a central player in the mobile space and in mobile commerce, in particular, and that this partnership has the potential to make MC the dominant mobile payments provider.
Read the whole article below.
http://gigaom.com/2011/04/27/credit-card-cos-whos-doing-what-in-mobile-payments/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=gigaom
Thursday 28 April 2011
Monday 25 April 2011
Tyfone: Plug-and-Play Mobile Banking
I have previously covered Monitise, a mobile banking and payments platform for banks that has been incredibly successful in tying up partnerships with UK and US banks, as well as partnering with Visa to deliver mobile payment solutions.
In a recent article, Pymnts covers Tyfone, a competing mobile banking a payments platform. Tyfone was founded in 2004 in Portland, Oregon and is funded by Ojas Venture Partners, a Bangalore based early-stage tech fund. They target banks and credit unions and initial traction appears to primarily be with credit unions.
In terms of product differentiation, Tyfone emphasize the folowing features:
The market is definitely big enough for another couple of players, so it will be interesting to see if Tyfone will choose to focus their efforts on credit unions or if they will go with a broader approach to business development.
In a recent article, Pymnts covers Tyfone, a competing mobile banking a payments platform. Tyfone was founded in 2004 in Portland, Oregon and is funded by Ojas Venture Partners, a Bangalore based early-stage tech fund. They target banks and credit unions and initial traction appears to primarily be with credit unions.
In terms of product differentiation, Tyfone emphasize the folowing features:
- Mobile banking for non-online bankers: enabling all bank customers, including those that are not currently signed up for internet banking to quickly sign up for mobile banking
- Account aggregation: enabling the user to manage all their accounts from the same interface
- Secure ID management: Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) to ensure secure log-in
- NFC Contactless Payments: a flexible mobile wallet
The market is definitely big enough for another couple of players, so it will be interesting to see if Tyfone will choose to focus their efforts on credit unions or if they will go with a broader approach to business development.
Friday 22 April 2011
Visa & the Gap Roll Out Location-Based Mobile Offers
Fast Company recently did a piece about Visa the Gap teaming up to offer low-tech location-based deals. The system does not require NFC-tags, check-ins or smartphones.
The user simply registers with their card details and mobile number on the project home page, Mobile Gap 4 U, and every time he or she makes a purchase that meets certain pre-defined criteria, such as location, day, amount, etc., she is sent an offer via SMS to their mobile. To redeem the deal, the user simply walks into any Gap store and shows the text to the staff, who will process the deal.
This trial is a good idea for both Visa and the Gap, as they are able to test certain features of location-based deals, without having to roll out a full-fledged NFC infrastructure that will initially probably mostly appeal to first-movers. Instead, the Gap is able to appeal more broadly to their most loyal customers. By engaging this audience with location-based deals, they are able to learn about their most important customers and paving the way for more advanced technology when the time is right.
The user simply registers with their card details and mobile number on the project home page, Mobile Gap 4 U, and every time he or she makes a purchase that meets certain pre-defined criteria, such as location, day, amount, etc., she is sent an offer via SMS to their mobile. To redeem the deal, the user simply walks into any Gap store and shows the text to the staff, who will process the deal.
This trial is a good idea for both Visa and the Gap, as they are able to test certain features of location-based deals, without having to roll out a full-fledged NFC infrastructure that will initially probably mostly appeal to first-movers. Instead, the Gap is able to appeal more broadly to their most loyal customers. By engaging this audience with location-based deals, they are able to learn about their most important customers and paving the way for more advanced technology when the time is right.
Wednesday 20 April 2011
Amex LinkedIn Campaign
Every company is now using Facebook and Twitter for marketing. Still, although they opened their APIs in 2009, few companies have successfully launched a campaign on LinkedIn.
Amex is now trying to buck this trend with their 'For Everything You Do' campaign, with which people are able to nominate and vote for their favourite administrative staff. The admin with the most votes at the end of the campaign will receive $2500 and 100 randomly selected nominees will receive $25.
Amex is clearly using LinkedIn to connect with their more affluent and professional customer base. However, the campaign is interesting in that it demonstrates the potential of LinkedIn for more subtle, less intrusive marketing campaigns.
Amex is now trying to buck this trend with their 'For Everything You Do' campaign, with which people are able to nominate and vote for their favourite administrative staff. The admin with the most votes at the end of the campaign will receive $2500 and 100 randomly selected nominees will receive $25.
Amex is clearly using LinkedIn to connect with their more affluent and professional customer base. However, the campaign is interesting in that it demonstrates the potential of LinkedIn for more subtle, less intrusive marketing campaigns.
Wednesday 13 April 2011
Google firms up plans for NFC roll out in Austin
Google today announced that it will use Identive Group to produce the NFC-tags for its Places roll-out in Austin, Texas.
Austin will be the second city in Google's NFC-powered Places roll-out, whereby it places NFC decals in participating merchants' windows. Customers can hold their phones against the NFC tag and read reviews, offers and further information about the merchant.
Based on the information it collects about its customers' preferences, Google will develop a powerful recommendation engine to steer customers through insightful recommendations and deals. It is likely to combine this effort with its recent ventures into payments, which, if successful, will enable it have a hand in the entire purchasing process, from product search to payment.
Austin will be the second city in Google's NFC-powered Places roll-out, whereby it places NFC decals in participating merchants' windows. Customers can hold their phones against the NFC tag and read reviews, offers and further information about the merchant.
Based on the information it collects about its customers' preferences, Google will develop a powerful recommendation engine to steer customers through insightful recommendations and deals. It is likely to combine this effort with its recent ventures into payments, which, if successful, will enable it have a hand in the entire purchasing process, from product search to payment.
Saturday 9 April 2011
Groupon Survey: How People Use the Daily Deals Giant
Business Insider recently completed a survey of Groupon users. The survey uncovers some interesting insights about how people use the emerging daily deals giant.
Among the 86% of respondents who use Groupon, 50% have joined in the last 6 months and 80% have joined in the last year, highlighting the blistering pace at which the company has grown.
The relative youth of the company, is also reflected in users' redemption history to date. 55% of users have redeemed coupons 1-5 times, 25% have redeemed more than 5 and 20% say they have never redeemed.
However, Groupon may need to re-think their approach, as a full 35% of respondents say they almost never open their daily emails and 40% say they open fewer emails than they did at first. Still, considering Groupon's growth rate and masses of users, if they are able to engage 25% of their user base on a regular basis, this might be more than enough to build a sustainable business.
Related, and perhaps even more clear than the above point, 70% of users say they are likely to redeem less Groupons in the future than they did in the past. This may indicate that Groupon needs to continue to improve its offering to stay relevant. Or, it could simply be that the majority of users respond to specific deals and have no intention of continuing to user the service, once they have used the initial deal. Crucially, this still leaves Groupon with 30% of its massive user base that think they will use the site more in the future than in the past.
Perhaps even more indicative of how the deals space is all about the deals on offer and very little about loyalty to the deals intermediary, only about 25% say that they subscribe to Groupon only, while the remainding 75% subscribe to more than one service.
Based on the survey findings, we can clearly see that the deals space is still a very young business. Although Groupon is the clear market leader, it remains a very competitive space, with limited customer loyalty and little certainty about what business model will win the day.
Among the 86% of respondents who use Groupon, 50% have joined in the last 6 months and 80% have joined in the last year, highlighting the blistering pace at which the company has grown.
The relative youth of the company, is also reflected in users' redemption history to date. 55% of users have redeemed coupons 1-5 times, 25% have redeemed more than 5 and 20% say they have never redeemed.
However, Groupon may need to re-think their approach, as a full 35% of respondents say they almost never open their daily emails and 40% say they open fewer emails than they did at first. Still, considering Groupon's growth rate and masses of users, if they are able to engage 25% of their user base on a regular basis, this might be more than enough to build a sustainable business.
Related, and perhaps even more clear than the above point, 70% of users say they are likely to redeem less Groupons in the future than they did in the past. This may indicate that Groupon needs to continue to improve its offering to stay relevant. Or, it could simply be that the majority of users respond to specific deals and have no intention of continuing to user the service, once they have used the initial deal. Crucially, this still leaves Groupon with 30% of its massive user base that think they will use the site more in the future than in the past.
Perhaps even more indicative of how the deals space is all about the deals on offer and very little about loyalty to the deals intermediary, only about 25% say that they subscribe to Groupon only, while the remainding 75% subscribe to more than one service.
Based on the survey findings, we can clearly see that the deals space is still a very young business. Although Groupon is the clear market leader, it remains a very competitive space, with limited customer loyalty and little certainty about what business model will win the day.
Wednesday 6 April 2011
UsingMiles: Feeding the Reward Junky Addiction
UsingMiles, an online service that helps frequent fliers better manage and redeem their reward points, today announced that it has raised $2.7M from iSherpa.
The startup, which emerged from the TechStars programme, has developed a nifty dashboard that organises the user's reward accounts and helps them search and book flights and hotel stays, using both their points and cash.
By helping users get a better view of their different programs and better utilising their points, this should be a real hit with reward junkies.
The startup, which emerged from the TechStars programme, has developed a nifty dashboard that organises the user's reward accounts and helps them search and book flights and hotel stays, using both their points and cash.
By helping users get a better view of their different programs and better utilising their points, this should be a real hit with reward junkies.
Friday 1 April 2011
Web3.0: All about Data, says Reid Hoffman
In recent interviews, Reid Hoffman, the founder and Chairman of LinkedIn, angel investor and partner at Greylock, the venture capital fund, has thrown his hat in the ring for defining web 3.0. This term, which everyone and their dog has an opinion on, will be all about accessing, analysing and using the masses amounts of data that each and every one of us produce.
Ever since web 2.0, the collaborative net, defined by players such as blogs, Wikipedia, Facebook and Twitter, we all produce masses of data every day. This is set to increase exponentially as the internet becomes closer and closer integrated in our everyday life, through devices such as smartphones, TV boxes, cars, fridges, etc.
At this point, Hoffman makes a useful distinction between explicit and implicit data. Explicit data is the data we explicitly provide - e.g. I have provided information about my age, sex, job and friends on Facebook. Up til now, much of the information we leave behind, falls in this category.
However, perhaps the most exciting opportunities originate from what Hoffman refers to as implicit data. This is data that we do not explicitly provide, but implicitly leave behind from our actions, e.g. geo-locational data and payments information.
As more and more of our lives become connected, this category is likely to explode in the next few years, and will create amazing business opportunities that we can already see companies positioning themselves towards, but also many opportunities that we can not yet predict. Essentially the type of black swans that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have been over the last 5 years.
Of course there are also massive privacy issues associated with this data. Over the last 5 years, we have all become accustomed to sharing more information that would have been conceivable before. And, despite minor setbacks, we have generally been happy to make this trade off so long as online networks enabled us to better connect with the world around us, primarily used data that we explicitly provided and gave us a high degree of control over how the data would be used and shared.
However, with implicit data, this trade-off becomes far more complex. Firms that are to succeed in this new paradigm must therefore develop entirely new and more powerful value to their users, while they ensure that the users' data is stored, used and shared in a responsible manner.
Ever since web 2.0, the collaborative net, defined by players such as blogs, Wikipedia, Facebook and Twitter, we all produce masses of data every day. This is set to increase exponentially as the internet becomes closer and closer integrated in our everyday life, through devices such as smartphones, TV boxes, cars, fridges, etc.
At this point, Hoffman makes a useful distinction between explicit and implicit data. Explicit data is the data we explicitly provide - e.g. I have provided information about my age, sex, job and friends on Facebook. Up til now, much of the information we leave behind, falls in this category.
However, perhaps the most exciting opportunities originate from what Hoffman refers to as implicit data. This is data that we do not explicitly provide, but implicitly leave behind from our actions, e.g. geo-locational data and payments information.
As more and more of our lives become connected, this category is likely to explode in the next few years, and will create amazing business opportunities that we can already see companies positioning themselves towards, but also many opportunities that we can not yet predict. Essentially the type of black swans that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have been over the last 5 years.
Of course there are also massive privacy issues associated with this data. Over the last 5 years, we have all become accustomed to sharing more information that would have been conceivable before. And, despite minor setbacks, we have generally been happy to make this trade off so long as online networks enabled us to better connect with the world around us, primarily used data that we explicitly provided and gave us a high degree of control over how the data would be used and shared.
However, with implicit data, this trade-off becomes far more complex. Firms that are to succeed in this new paradigm must therefore develop entirely new and more powerful value to their users, while they ensure that the users' data is stored, used and shared in a responsible manner.
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