Visa/MasterCard/Amex: Mobile Payment Bets

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