After several weeks of speculation and leaked details, today Google officially unveiled its first big foray into mobile payments in Asia. The Android and search giant has launched Tez, a free mobile wallet in India that will let users link up their phones to their bank accounts to pay for goods securely in physical stores and online, and for person-to-person money transfers with a new twist: Audio QR, which uses ultrasonic sounds to let you exchange money, bypassing any need for NFC.
Meanwhile, mobile payment apps are being adopted in smaller numbers
Continue reading… “P2P payment transactions to exceed $120 billion this year”
SHANGHAI — There is an audacious economic phenomenon happening in China.
It has nothing to do with debt, infrastructure spending or the other major economic topics du jour. It has to do with cash — specifically, how China is systematically and rapidly doing away with paper money and coins. Continue reading… “In Urban China, cash is rapidly becoming obsolete”
People are shopping on their phones more so than ever before.
You won’t need to carry a wallet in the not-so-distant future. Smartphones are transforming the way we pay for things online and offline, but mobile payments still have a long way to go before they’re ubiquitous.
Continue reading… “The mobile payment ‘tsunami’ is coming”
Pebble Smartwatch
The adoption of smartphone in the U.S. continues to grow. It now accounts for 57 percent of the mobile market according to comScore. Rollout of in-store mobile payments has been slow and fragmented. Some experts attribute it to infrastructure challenges or hesitancy on behalf of consumers due to security risks. Others suspect the market just isn’t ready.
Continue reading… “Smartwatches are the future of mobile payments”
Mobile payment systems have the potential to provide significant benefits to business travelers, as well as travel managers. New technologies such as mobile wallets, near-field communication (NFC), along with a proliferation of travel apps, can streamline both the purchase and expensing process for business travelers. But customers’ and businesses’ lack of familiarity with these new tools remains a significant stumbling block for adoption.
The “digital wallet” will store the banks’ customers’ credit and debit card account information, both for Visa cards and other cards.
The world’s largest credit and debit card processing network, Visa Inc, is building a digital wallet that people can use to pay for things online or with their phones instead of with traditional cards.
Continue reading… “Visa Plans to Launch Digital Wallet for Banks in the U.S.”
Gartner forecasts that the number of mobile payment users will reach 103.9 million globally in 2011, up from 32.9 million in 2008.
Continue reading… “Mobile Payments Will Triple By 2011”
