In the open-end (general purpose, as opposed to systems that support only one retail brand) mobile payments business, scale really does matter, simply because it is difficult to create a brand new habit unless people can use their new mobile payment features most of the places they ordinarily want to shop.
That’s the reason why the new business agreement between PayPal and Discover is important. Even though Discover lags behind Visa, MasterCard and American Express in terms of active account holders and users, Discover has a big network. PayPal has about 50 million active users.
And although Discover handles fewer transactions than credit-card industry leaders Visa, American Express, and MasterCard, the Discover penetration rate at retail merchants in the U.S. is 95 percent. That means PayPal can be used at most of the places most people will be shopping, and that is a big deal, indeed.
That represents about seven million retail locations nationwide in the United States. The other angle is that the way PayPal handles the mobile payments also means merchants do not have to buy and install new point of sale gear. That’s another traditional impediment to adoption of mobile payments by merchants.
PayPal users will be able to make purchases using their phone number and a security pin code, a major advantage compared to systems that require installation of new POS terminals.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
PayPal, with Discover Tie, Can Be Used at 7 Million U.S. Retail Locations
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
It's Hard to Figure Out What People Want
Helping people find new experiences they wouldn't otherwise know about is a value location-based apps often try to provide. But do people often want to do so? As it turns out, one app, Roamz, actually wasn't being used that way.
What Roamz creators found, instead, was that users knew what they wanted and were just looking for some guidance and some idea of what other people like. So Roamz is "pivoting" its approach. Instead of emphasizing discovery of "new" experiences, Roamz tries to provide guidance about experiences or products about which a given user already has a use case.
In other words, it turns out that when people leave the house in the morning, they aren't terribly interested in exploring the world around them. They have to get to work. As it turns out, "serendipity" apps and features aren't terribly useful at times when people are engaged in purposeful activities.
It reminds us of how bold Steve Jobs really was, designing products we didn't know we needed. It's very risky to do so.
What Roamz creators found, instead, was that users knew what they wanted and were just looking for some guidance and some idea of what other people like. So Roamz is "pivoting" its approach. Instead of emphasizing discovery of "new" experiences, Roamz tries to provide guidance about experiences or products about which a given user already has a use case.
In other words, it turns out that when people leave the house in the morning, they aren't terribly interested in exploring the world around them. They have to get to work. As it turns out, "serendipity" apps and features aren't terribly useful at times when people are engaged in purposeful activities.
It reminds us of how bold Steve Jobs really was, designing products we didn't know we needed. It's very risky to do so.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
IEEE Can Foresee 100X More Bandwidth Demand by 2020
According to a study by a working group of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), it is possible that bandwidth demand could grow by two orders of magnitude by 2020, from 2010 levels.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Singapore Mobile Operators Launch Mobile Payments
SingTel and Mi are enabling subscribers to pay for retail purchases payment service provider EZ-Link Pte. M1 subscribers also will be able to use M1’s new co-branded prepaid card application, which supports MasterCard PayPass.
The launches follow StarHub’s launch of its mobile payment system SmartWallet in early August 2012.
The SmartWallet will offer three payment applications that mirror the M1 choices.
StarHub plans to make three Android NFC phones available, as well, including the Samsung Galaxy S III.
All three telcos are part of a consortium chosen by Singapore telecoms and information services regulator Infocomm Development Authority to build an interoperable NFC infrastructure.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Mobile Commerce is E-Commerce
Some of us would argue that, over time, "mobile commerce" will subsume e-commerce. Others, of course, will argue that e-commerce will become mobile commerce. It works, either way.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Apple: Biggest Equity Value, Ever
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
IaaS is Amazon, 19 Companies Earning $20 Million Annually, Lots of Firms Making Only $10 Million
Once you eliminate Amazon from the list of infrastructure as a service suppliers, you have a list of 19 vendors that earn $20 million annually. There are many earning $10 million in annual revenue, according to Lydia Leong, Gartner analyst.
The data suggests that to succeed in this market, you have two possible routes, Leong argues. A company needs a giant sales channel with a ton of feet on the street and existing relationships, or a company needs excellent online marketing and instant online sign-ups.
A third possible route is that you make it easy for people to white-label and resell your service, says Leong.
As with most other new businesses, there will be a ton of consolidation as surviving providers amass enough scale to survive.
The data suggests that to succeed in this market, you have two possible routes, Leong argues. A company needs a giant sales channel with a ton of feet on the street and existing relationships, or a company needs excellent online marketing and instant online sign-ups.
A third possible route is that you make it easy for people to white-label and resell your service, says Leong.
As with most other new businesses, there will be a ton of consolidation as surviving providers amass enough scale to survive.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
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