Google Teams with MasterCard, Citi for Mobile Payments

Google is teaming up with MasterCard and Citigroup to add mobile payments functionality to Android mobile devices. The deal is an example of Google's different take on mobile payments. Where Isis, the mobile payments venture supported by AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA aims to generate revenue through transaction fees, Google is more interested in the advantages for its advertising business.

The planned payment system would allow Google to offer retailers more data about their customers and help them target ads and discount offers to mobile-device users near their stores.

Google Pursues Role in Mobile Payments - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Freemium Model for Mahala Mobile Banking

Mahala, a new mobile banking service, will launch in South Africa in May 2011, using a "freemium" model. Peer-to-peer money transfer, money deposits or withdrawals and retail payments are offered without charge. Mahala expects to make money by selling additional services to users. See more information about Mahala here: http://www.mahala.co/

Mahala is likely to disrupt existing mobile banking providers in South Africa, as those providers now charge for transactions, generally based on the gross amount of each transaction or a flat fee per transaction.



South Africa is by far the country where mobile banking is most widely used on the continent. Still, about half of South Africa citizens don’t have bank accounts. Nearly 40 percent are either unemployed or work informal jobs paid in cash. Bank charges are high and banking regulations are so strict – such as proof of regular income – that they prevent many poor people form having formal bank accounts. Moreover, most South Africans live in rural or semi-urban areas where access to a bank is very limited or non-existent.

First National Bank of South Africa has over two million customers and attracts about 90,000 on a monthly basis. In 2009, FNB mobile banking customers made 56 million transactions worth the value of ZAR7.2 billion. Customers can send money to anyone in South Africa, whether they have an account with FNB or not.

South Africans often paid couriers the equivalent of USD 30 to USD 50 per transaction to deliver cash to relatives. Now they can do it for only USD 0.50 through Wizzit mobile bank networks.

Flash Mobile Cash by Eezi gives home shop owners the tools to be the bank for communities where formal banking infrastructure does not exist. The home shops, equipped with shared-phone ATMs, enable communities to withdraw, deposit or borrow small amounts of cash from their local township residence. The shopkeeper, as the banker, transacts using a GSM enabled device supplied by Shared-phone. “

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Mobile Payment Models Show Why Mobile Service Providers and App Providers Are in the Business

Some would argue there are just three primary ways for U.S. consumers to make retail payments, and the methods show why mobile service providers, application providers and banks are getting into the business.

The three primary methods, some would say, include direct billing by a mobile service provider, paying by credit card or debit card and using an "online wallet" such as PayPal or Google Checkout.

Direct operator billing has been possible for many years, but relatively few retailers have embraced it, in many cases because the transaction charges are higher than when using a credit card or debit card. That has been a problem especially for the sort of small-retail-value transactions many believe will drive use of mobile payments.

Credit cards and debit cards are routinely used by consumers for online commerce as well as retail purchases, and mobile payments simply represent a move by credit and debit card issuers to hang on to market share and revenues they already are getting.

Online wallet services such as PayPal, Amazon Payments, and Google Checkout mostly have been used for online payments and money transfers, typically by use of applications that combine log-ins, passwords, shipping addresses, and credit card details in one central place, linking credit card accounts with the other payment process features.

In all three cases, mobile payments represents a move from an existing offline or online payment mode into a mobile mode, where the phone displaces the credit or debit card.

So the interest in mobile payments is rather obvious. Banks that issue credit cards and debit cards want to hang on to the business they've got, while mobile service providers and payment application vendors want to conquer new markets that represent net revenue growth.

Understanding Mobile Payment Models | Banking & Finance > Banking, Lending & Credit Services from AllBusiness.com

30 Million U.S. Mobile Users Access Financial Accounts Using Mobiles

A new comScore report found that 39 million U.S. mobile users accessed financial services accounts (bank, credit card, or brokerage) using their mobile device in the fourth quarter of 2010, an increase of 54 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009.

Mobile Financial Service Audience (Accessed Bank, Credit Card or Brokerage Account) 3 Month Avg. Ending Dec-2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Dec-2009 Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Total Unique Audience (MM)
	Q4 2009	Q4 2010	Percent Change
Accessed Mobile Financial Services*	19.3	29.8	54%
Accessed via Mobile Browser	11.8	18.6	58%
Accessed via Application	4.9	10.8	120%
Accessed via SMS	6.0	8.1	35%

Number of U.S. Mobile Financial Account Users Surges 54 Percent to 30 Million in Past Year - comScore

Swiss Mobile Banking App

The "iBank CH Mobile Banking" app sold by Recon IT Services GmbH provides an example of mobile banking as it appears on an Apple iPhone. Some apps primarily are "information" apps that allow users to track balances or make transfers between accounts.

Other apps are designed more specifically to support retail purchases.

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In 4G, Verizon Wireless Emphasizes Quality

If bandwidth is a measure of fourth-generation network quality, Verizon Wireless stands out from all the other carriers, according to a test by RootMetrics at some locations in Seattle, Wash. With the caveat that results will vary from location to location, across networks as well as on any single network, as well as the obvious observation that a lightly-loaded, brand-new network will not have much congestion because it has few customers, the test shows a wide disparity in experienced speeds.

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Does this look like a reasonable alignment of value and price?

http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-of-the-week-the-new-york-times-delusional-digital-pricing-scheme-2011-3/the-real-reason-att-is-buying-t-mobile-2