Category Archives: mobile payments
How do banks and operators feel about mobile banking?
I had a surprising chat with mobile roaming provider at Mobile World Congress. Particularly with Abraham Punnoose, VP of Marketing & Business Development. You can see the first part of our interview here, but we went on to have a more in-depth conversation about different aspects of the mobile industry… in particular, the need for mobile banking. Continue reading
One weak link can break a chain: why mobile advertising failed for Zamano in the UK
An interesting news story popped up today. Mobile data services company Zamano reported a revenue drop of almost 40% in the UK during 2009 – a drop that the Irish Times attributed to “a shift away from advertising services on print and TV to advertising on mobile devices.” Zamano declared it is withdrawing investment from the UK altogether. This really drew our attention, as it sounded pretty dramatic. It sounded like mobile advertising was being blamed for the low revenues of the company. So GoMo News spoke to Zamano CEO, John O’Shea. And the picture he painted was one of a successful mobile advertising model that was destroyed by one weak link. Continue reading
Mobile payment made in Germany: mobuy
Wie geht es: Bei www.mobuy.de registrieren mit einer oder mehreren Telefonnummern, Abbuchung vom Bankkonto erlauben, persönliche PIN erhalten. Zum Bezahlen: Mobuy Nummer, die für eine bestimmte Transaktion steht, kostenlos anrufen, Anruf –ID identifiziert den Kunden, PIN eingeben, Buchungsvorgänge laufen. Mobuy ist ein Startup und erprobt seinen Service momentan in Pilotprojekten in Kooperation mit Vertriebspartnern, z.B. wird bei Geräten von Ricoh auch das Bezahlen von Kopierleistungen mittels des Mobiltelefons möglich. Die Software hierzu stammt von Genius Bytes, ebenfalls aus Deutschland. Continue reading
MWC: mobile roaming provider Roamware is pushing mobile payments
Roamware is one of those big companies you don’t hear about all that often. It handles mobile roaming for 418 operators around the world, in over 150 countries. I had a great chat with Abraham Punnoose, VP of Marketing & Business Development, yesterday and discovered that one of the things we were both very interested in was mobile payments and transactions – and it turns out that Roamware is extremely active in that arena. Continue reading
MWC Mobile Premier Awards – Donation on the Go: spendino (finalist in Innovation)
Die Spendino GmbH aus Berlin bietet Non-Profit-Organisationen eine integrierte Lösung für Internet und Mobile, mit dem Ziel der Mittelbeschaffung, also des Fundraising an. Ziel ist es, gemeinnützigen Organisationen dabei zu helfen, Spenden zu sammeln, mit bereits eingetragenen Spendern via Social Media zu kommunizieren und mit neuen in Dialog zu treten. Spendino, das nach eigenen Angaben das erste Unternehmen in Deutschland ist, welches das Handy ausschließlich für soziale Zwecke einsetzt, verwandelt das Smartphone in „eine moderne mobile Sammeldose“, indem die Spenden via SMS gesendet werden. Continue reading
@MWC: Top Mobile Payment news in brief, MoreMagic, Visa, Telefonica, NFC, Sicap, Telenor
Mobile Contactless Payments Trialled Live @MWC
Today the GSMA, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Telefónica, and Visa, together with Giesecke & Devrient, Ingenico, ITN International and La Caixa, announced the arrival of contactless mobile payments at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year. The companies unveiled the result of months of collaboration and have brought the first ever SIM-based NFC payments pilot to Mobile World Congress.
Continue reading
MTN makes good on its promise to launch Mobile Money in Rwanda
Last October, Africas largest mobile operator MTN said that it would be launching its revolutionary Mobile Money service in Rwanda by the end of the year. Ok, so its over a month late – but better late than never for the people who previously didn’t have access to banking services. Let’s see what they’ll be getting. Continue reading
Trial of true mobile payment begins in Shanghai
“Mobile payment” is a large category. It covers everything from using SMS to confirm your credit card in a retailer, to simply ordering an item over the mobile internet. But for me, the true meaning of “mobile payments” has always been to actually use your device as a payment method. Combining NFC with mobile devices, you could just wave your mobile over a reader at check-out to pay for your goods. This already works well with cards (like the Oyster card for the London Underground), and the same technology can simply be placed in your phone. Today, China Mobile and a Shanghai-based tech firm, SEIMMA Tech Co., have launched a mobile device payment trial in Shanghai. Continue reading
Micropayments heavyweight Hi-media wades into the mobile arena
Things are about to get very interesting for mobile content purchases. A Paris-based company that has 10 years experience in digital content has today announced a major launch. Hi-media is opening an office in San Francisco for its micropayments system, Allopass. Let’s have a look! Continue reading
Mobile Payments: Accumulate raises new venture capital
Existing owner and new owner PayEx invests over $2 million in Accumulate. The funds will be used for product development and marketing of the company’s mobile payment and mobile identification and authentication solutions.
Stockholm, Sweden – January 27, 2010. Accumulate gets a new shareholder when PayEx, a Nordic expert in payments, invests in the mobile technology [...]
Focus on customers, not iPhones – how to make mobile marketing work for Hostels
One of the worst mistakes a Hostel owner who wants to go mobile can make is to focus too hard on what technology is hot right now, at the cost of customer experience. Mobile marketing expert and CEO of BeepMarketing Helen Keegan addressed a global conference owners today with advice on how to reach their customers through mobile. But a lot of the advice given here is pretty sound in general, and can be broken down into a few rough categories.
More ways that mobile can help in Haiti: credit top ups are a form of contact and currency
While larger institutions like Ericsson and the Mobile Giving Foundation are doing their thing in Haiti, there’s still room for other companies to help however they can. A great example can be found in Ezetop, and Irish company that is helping Haitian expats to send mobile credit to loved ones in the disaster zone. Continue reading
Which do you prefer, your bank or your mobile phone?
It’s no secret that mobile finances are in the ascendent in Africa. While m-payments are being touted in Europe and America as a more convenient way to bank and pay, in Africa they mean so much more. And recent research shows that Nigerians trust their mobile more than a bank when it comes to handling money. Continue reading
Haiti disaster proves how good a channel mobile is for charity and disaster relief
At a mobile money conference in Los Angeles last November, I had the chance to talk to Jim Manis, CEO of Mobile Giving. He spoke about how charities tend to view mobile as a once off “strategy” for donation, rather than as a channel through which long-term donors can be acquired (see the full interview here). But the success of mobile as a channel for sending to the victims of the Haitian earthquake could be the turning point that changes peoples minds. Mobile really can be used to help people all over the world, every single day. Continue reading
