Category Archives: mobile payments
Ghana pips Nigeria and Israel for biggest source of fraudsters
Rating: 400 per cent increase in fraud via mobile devices in 2011
Transactions originating from the country of Ghana are most likely to correlate to fraud, according to iovation. Next in the list of naughty boys comes Nigeria followed by the Philippines, China and Israel. Using its patented ReputationManager 360 solution, iovation stopped 50 million fraud attempts in 2011 alone. Now the company’s system tracks more than 800 million different devices and the majority of attempts are being made from PCs or Macs. However, iovation detected a 400 percent increase in fraud via mobile devices in 2011. The system recognises the major mobile hardware brands but the company says its figures indicate that recognising and stopping mobile fraud will only become more challenging in 2012. Continue reading
Mobile Wallet tech offers lifeline to British retailers
According to research from YouGov, an online market research consultancy, British consumers’ reluctance to queue means retailers are not only losing almost 21 million potential customers to sell to every year, but some of those customers are potentially lost for good, as they turn elsewhere to purchase goods.
YouGov conducted a study based on a hypothetical scenario in which consumers were asked questions that involved queuing. Adults on YouGov’s UK online panel were asked questions to understand if queues restrict retailers from making sales. A further objective of the study was to determine how consumers expect retailers to reduce queue times. Continue reading
Sequoia provides secure comms over GPRS
Rating: GPRS printer ideal for remote communities
It is such a simple idea – and it’s proving its worth in one of the leading emerging markets, Africa. The product is the Sequoia GPRS printer which has proved highly successful in sub-Saharan Africa for a medical application. The technology, however, has much wider potential. It builds on the fact that in many developing countries there is virtually no communications infrastructure. However, they do have GSM based networks and although these can’t normally offer 3G, they certainly can support GPRS data. What Sequoia provides is a secure point-to-point means of communication with a simple to read print-out at the receiving end. The product is incredibly easy to use and can used anywhere. Continue reading
BuzzCity finds BlackBerry still dominates ad impressions in UK
Rating: Women and mature users dominate m-commerce
A somewhat startling finding from the latest quarterly report on the mobile advertising industry from BuzzCity is that in the UK, ad impressions are still dominated by BlackBerry (with 69 per cent). The company admits that this is declining with growing interest in Apple devices. The report’s main conclusion is that m-commerce adoption will be driven by women and mature users. In terms of what types of transaction users are making with their mobile phones, BuzzCity has found that services to stay connected; lifestyle and leisure; plus travel are the main categories. BuzzCity served more than 126 billion ads in 2011 which compares to 52 billion in 2010. Continue reading
Vodafone hires Mr M-Presa – Michael Joseph
Rating: Operator sees the benefits of tapping into the unbanked
Vodafone has apparently hired Michael Joseph – who is basically mr M-Pesa, to spearhead the roll-out of Vodafone’s own m-payments business.
Mobile handsets could spell end to dedicated payment cards
Rating: Out with the Oyster and in with an equally fishy substitute
This report is very definitely intriguing because the outcome of research into payment systems by Greenwich Consulting and Olswang has concluded that the days of the dedicated ticketing payment card are numbered. The report – entitled ‘Mobile: Driving Intelligent Payments into the real world’, suggests that, “The rise of intelligent payments will lead to mobile banking, ticketing and travel advancements, which could mean the death of dedicated travel payment cards such as Oyster in the UK and E-Z Link in Singapore.” The report attempts to suggest what the real alternatives are. Continue reading
Apple brings in-app purchasing into disrepute – yet again
Rating: 4-year old Brit runs up £87 bill playing rogue game Smurfs’Village
Despite it’s protestations to the contrary, Apple is bringing the whole practice of in-app billing into disrepute. This is despite its protestations to the contrary. The latest incident involves a four-year-old Brit, Oliver Allen – who cannot even read or write – managed to wrack up a bill of costing £87.48. Oliver was playing a children’s game – Smurfs’ Village, and incurred the charges because his mother – Sam Allen, was still logged into the iTunes App Store. The App Store has a time-out of 15 minutes and the purchases were made within that time period. The amazing thing is that the USA’s FTC had been asked to investigate exactly the same kind of incident nine months previously. Continue reading
MORE TH>N chooses Optimal Mobile Payments
MORE TH>N, the direct financial services arm of insurance giant RSA has become the latest UK firm to launch mobile payments by employing the services of Optimal Payments.
The solution is a set of mobile-optimised pages provided as part of Optimal’s NETBANX payment gateway. Continue reading
Gemalto sexes up NFC tech with free running video
Rating: Blink and you’ll miss what NFC is being used for
It seems that Gemalto is dead keen to portray NFC technology as being as trendy as possible. So it’s come up with a video to demonstrate NFC in action which has a particular twist. The video is called ‘Don’t Be Late- Parkour and Gemalto Mobile NFC Services’. The title might backfire a little since Parkour very definitely isn’t the French word for ‘jump’ but it is absolutely the French word for the sport that’s known as free running. That’s probably totally irrelevant as the video recounts the tale of a young black male – who just happens to be a ‘traceur’ or practitioner of the art of parkour – who’s late for a date with his girl. His jumping is so spectacular you forget to watch what he actually does with his NFC enabled handset. So you have to re-watch the video. Which we suspect is the whole idea. Continue reading
UK: Mobile Money Network goes live
The Mobile Money Network (MMN) has launched its new instant mobile checkout, Simply Tap.
The Carphone Warehouse, with Best Buy Europe, is one of the first major retailers to integrate Simply Tap™ into its customer experience with shoppers able to buy directly from Carphone Warehouse advertising, direct marketing, website and buyer’s guide. Continue reading
Majority of Brits ‘scared’ by Mobile Payments
Fears over phone hacking are dominating British consumers’ security concerns about mobile wallet payments. According to research by Intersperience, these concerns are likely to hamper UK-wide adoption of new mobile payment systems. Continue reading
Retail apps have fuelled mobile payments growth
Rating: Mobile buyers spend more than cash buyers says Juniper
The gross merchandise transaction value of mobile payments for physical goods will exceed $170 billion worldwide by 2015, according to a new report just released by Juniper Research Entitled ‘Mobile Payments for Digital & Physical Goods – Analysis, Markets & Vendor Strategies 2011-2015′, it forecasts that this will be nearly treble the $60 billion predicted for 2011. Significantly the report says that initial growth in mobile payments has been fuelled by a dramatic upsurge in retail apps in the wake of the consumer smartphone explosion. The sort of iPhone and Android apps plus mobile-friendly web sites that GoMo News has frequently covered in the past. The report cautions, however, that vendors still need to innovate unceasingly as the market develops and becomes more competitive. Continue reading
Coleago says Google will win wallet war
Rating: And in second place are the mobile operators
Although it’s entitled ‘Who will win the mobile payments standards war’ the latest report from independent telecoms consultancy, Coleago Consulting, is really focussed on the mobile wallet. Which is why the author has concluded that, “Google is currently best positioned to win the standards war for mobile payments.” However, the report does concede that, mobile operator alliances are in a strong position to challenge the major over-the-top players, should they move fast enough.” For a UK based operation, this report certainly does appear to take a very US-centric viewpoint. It seems to ignore entirely the fact that there is a fully functional mobile payments eco-system functioning perfectly well in Africa thanks to the like of Fundamo and MTN Uganda (see our previous story here). The report’s conclusion also seems to assume that NFC is the only option when 2D barcodes could be used in precisely the same fashion, for example. Continue reading
Google Wallet gets rolled out to Sprint Nexus S 4G owners
Rating: Hopes to add more financial partners via NFC support
Having extensively tested it since the first announcement back in May [2011], Google has now rolled out the first version of the Google Wallet app to Sprint. It will become available to all owners of the Sprint Nexus S 4G via an OTA (Over-The-Air) update. The Wallet was trialled with three financial institutions – Citi, First Data and MasterCard. Now, Visa, Discover and American Express have made their NFC specifications available which will enable their cards to be added to future versions of Google Wallet. The eventual goal, however, is for all payment cards to be added to the Google Wallet. Read our own Bena Roberts’ verdict here. Continue reading
Enter Google Wallet
For the first time in a very long time, I am impassioned by Google. Not only that I am beating myself up that I am not a Sprint 4G S subscriber.
The Google Wallet is behind my new flame.
Continue reading
