Imagining a Whole Business as a Transaction Processing Platform

Amazon.com: the Hidden Empire

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Amazon is a transaction machine. Some would argue that's what retail service providers all day long, only the transactions are call detail records. Hence the interest in mobile payments and commerce. The big issue will be ability to scale and offer very-attractive processing costs for partners. That has not typically been the case for telco billing.

Consumers Ready for Mobile Wallet, MasterCard Says

Consumers are now ready to use  their smart phones as mobile wallets, according to a new survey by MasterCard Worldwide. The study, conducted by Kelton Research, shows 62 percent of Americans who use a mobile phone would be open to using their device to make purchases wherever their errands may take them.

Younger users are expected to take the lead, as 18 to 34 year-olds are particularly ready to use mobiles for commerce, payments and credential storage.

According to the study, 63 percent of 18 to 34 year olds would be at ease using mobile phones to make purchases, compared to 37 percent of  those age 35 or older.

Between 2009 and 2010, respondents showed a 67 percent increase in the number of purchases made with their mobile phones.

As the mobile wallet goes mainstream, gender will play a role in how it’s perceived and used.  While men see their phones as functional necessities, women take a more personal approach to their mobile devices.

More men than women (51 percent vs. 40 percent) who have a mobile phone would be at ease using it to make purchases.

Despite reliance on mobile devices and general consumer readiness for mobile payments, the survey revealed that overall safety is a significant comfort factor in the decision to pay by phone. Some 62 percent of respondents said they need confirmation that their personal information is safe in order to be comfortable making a transaction, underscoring trust and privacy as paramount factors in changing payment behaviors.

http://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-survey-finds-consumers-particularly-trend-setting-18-34-year-olds-have-sights-set-on-mobile-phone-payments/

96% of Social Media Messages Embed or Link to Content

About 96 percent of the social media sharing that happens online is of content, a study by AOL and Nielsen Online 10,000 social media messages suggests.

About 60 percent of social media messages consist of links to published content, while 36 percent of shares were of content directly embedded into the messages. Only about four percent of social media messages contained links to URLs for brands or corporate websites. As its name suggests, social media really are a form of media.

60% of Social Media Messages are Links to Published Content

Enterprises Will Need Less Office Space in Future, More Remote Communications

“The future of work will involve organizations moving toward a more flexible work model where employees will be allowed to buy their own office space, according to Regus, a provider of flexible workspaces, and consultancy Unwired.

Regus and Unwired surveyed 600 enterprise executives from around the world and found that 60 percent of survey respondents forecast a decrease in the need for office space in the future, with seven percent predicting an increase in space required. About 51 percent indicated that the office will become a place for occasional use.

“As the utilization of an office today is typically only 45 percent, empty desks no longer make sense in a world where mobility and agility will become accepted by people as the most effective and sustainable way of working,” says Philip Ross, Chief Executive Officer, Unwired.

About  59 percent of respondents said they no longer struggle to work effectively outside the workplace. On the other hand, just 12 percent of people would like to work from home.

Fully 64 percent of respondents believe the ideal commute to work is under 20 minutes and 25 percent want less than a 10 minute commute. Currently, 32 percent of respondents that work for large organizations spend 41 minutes to an hour commuting every day and 27 percent spend over an hour.

About 71 percent of those surveyed believe that younger workers, the millennials and the generation still at school, will be more accepting of virtual working and reject the traditional office.

http://www.regus.presscentre.com/Press-Releases/REGUS-AND-UNWIRED-LAUNCH-GLOBAL-WORKPLACE-REPORT-2242.aspx

The Future of Media: Brands Are Publishers Now

High-end group shopping service Gilt Groupe has just launched its own cooking magazine.

The Gilt Groupe offering, which is called "Gilt Taste," is interesting in part because it is targeted at a very specific market: namely, the high-end food afficionado. It looks and reads like a high-quality food or recipe-based magazine that might come from a regular publisher, but it is obviously designed to help promote offers from the Gilt Groupe (which recently closed a $138-million financing that values the company at $1 billion).

It’s more than just a catalog, however, as Gilt hired the former editor of Gourmet magazine to run it, and it clearly wants to be the equal of any traditional food magazine.

The Future of Media: Brands Are Publishers Now Too

Verizon Hints at Possible Family Plan for Mobile Data

Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo says a shift to data "family plans" is “inevitable,” but didn’t say when it might happen.

“I think it’s safe to assume that at some point you are going to have mega-plans (for data) and people are going to share that mega-plan based on the number of devices within their family,” Shammo said. “That’s just a logical progression.”

Family calling plans have long been an an industry standard for voice services and texting, allowing people on the same contract to share a bucket of minutes or messages.

Some might also suggest there eventually will be data plans that combine a mix of landline broadband access and mobile access as well.

Verizon Hints at Possible Family Plan for Mobile Data

Isis Says It Will be a "Delivery Engine"

Isis, the mobile payments venture owned by AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, now says it will be a “delivery engine” for banks and payment networks to provision and manage their applications on NFC phones.

Isis also said it will serve as a distribution channel for merchants and consumer product companies for their digital coupons, loyalty programs and other offers.

Isis expects to charge fees to the banks and payment service providers for managing their applications on the carriers’ SIM cards or other secure chips that the telcos control on the phones.

Isis would also take a small fee when it delivers a coupon or enables consumers to receive advertising or other offers on their phones, Hughes said.

Instead of creating a new retail payments brand and back office, Isis now appears to be setting out to be a social shopping platform and ad network.

Much hinges on ability to retain control of the credentials management process, though. Carriers obviously would like that process to center on the mobile handset subscriber information module. Handset manufacturers want to control the process themselves.

Without Own Payment Service, Isis Recasts Itself as ‘Delivery Engine’