Google plans NFC trails with MasterCard and Citigroup (US)

On 03.28.11, In Mobile, By Editor

If rumors are to be believed, Google has teamed up with MasterCard and Citigroup to embed NFC services into Android smartphones. Surprisingly, Google is not planning to take a percentage of the transaction fee, in a move which could pitch its business model in direct competition with Apple which is expected to demand its slice of the revenues.

According to sources, instead, Google expects to generate revenues from information services such as customer data and advertising to consumers. The move could raise some privacy concerns though, as Google would then – in theory – be able to know which locally delivered adverts lead to an eventual sale in a retail store.

The Google backed system is expected to be launched later this year, and the company has already signed a deal with VeriFone to supply NFC enabled readers to retail stores wanting to join in the trials.

Google’s mobile-payment service could also face competition from EBay’s PayPal and ISIS, a joint effort of several mobile companies. The ISIS system, backed by AT&T and Verizon Wireless, will rely on Discover Financial Services to handle the payments.

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Google plans to trail mobile payments this summer

On 03.16.11, In Mobile, By Editor

­Google is planning to start the trails of an NFC based mobile payment service in New York and San Francisco by the middle of the year, as moves to support mobile payments gains traction from operators and handset manufacturers.

According to sources, Google will pay for the installation of thousands of special cash-register systems from VeriFone Systems to accept transactions from NFC enabled smartphones.

Google added NFC capabilities to its most recent release of the Andoid OS, although it was reported that Apple might decide to wait until next year before adding NFC capabilities to its iPhone handsets.

Google’s mobile-payment service would face competition from EBay’s PayPal and ISIS, a joint effort of several mobile companies. The ISIS system, backed by AT&T and Verizon Wireless, will rely on Discover Financial Services to handle the payments.

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O2 to pre-load eBay app on UK smartphones

On 02.16.11, In Mobile, By Editor

eBay, an online auction and retail service, has signed a deal to pre-load its mobile apps into phones sold by O2 in the UK.

This is the first mobile pre-load deal agreed by eBay anywhere in the world, and the first time Telefonica has selected an app to make available to its O2, smart and feature phone customers across the board. eBay’s mobile app is one of the most popular shopping destinations for O2′s customers who are already responsible for a significant proportion of eBay’s UK mobile traffic.

O2 customers in the UK will be the first to benefit from the arrangement, but eBay’s mobile shopping experience is expected to launch to other Telefonica markets worldwide.

Starting later this year, the eBay mobile app icon or a link to the mobile site will appear on either the home page or two subsequent pages of most Android, Windows Phone 7, Symbian, RIM and bada devices sold by O2 in the UK over the next two years. The company will work with device manufacturers to pre-install the application.

According to Glyn Povah, Head of Content at Telefonica O2 Europe, deals like this are great for customers and great for brands. They allow them to bring their customers best-of-breed content & services from the brands they know and love, while also helping brands stand out in the increasingly cluttered app marketplace.

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eBay Acquires Industry Leading Mobile Application Developer

On 12.17.10, In Mobile, By Editor

eBay Inc. today announced it has acquired Critical Path Software, a leading mobile application developer that has worked with eBay for more than two years to help deliver popular mobile apps such as the eBay for iPhone® app, and StubHub, eBay Classifieds and Shopping.com iPhone applications. Critical Path Software’s proven mobile development capabilities will play an integral role in enabling eBay to accelerate improvements to the mobile experience for customers globally. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“We’re very serious about innovating in mobile commerce, and this acquisition underscores our commitment to bringing the very best and brightest in the field to eBay,” said Mark Carges, chief technology officer and senior vice president, global products, eBay Marketplaces. “Integrating the Critical Path Software team into eBay will be a big win for mobile shoppers around the world; combined with the talent on our team today, we can make shopping and selling anywhere, anytime, for almost anything, even better.”

With more than 200 million listings available globally at any given time on eBay, shoppers have access to a wide selection of merchandise right from their mobile phones. eBay Mobile collaborated with Critical Path Software most recently on eBay Inc.’s most popular mobile app, the iPhone 2.0 core eBay app, which has been downloaded by more than 14 million times since its launch in 2008. Critical Path Software also was a key contributor in developing mobile apps enabling users to buy tickets on-the-go on StubHub; search local listings on eBay Classifieds; and access more than 7,000 global merchants on Shopping.com.

About eBay Inc. Mobile

eBay launched its first application for the iPhone in July 2008 and has since become a leader in mobile commerce. Its core iPhone application, which is available free via iTunes in eight languages and 190 countries, has been downloaded more than 14 million times and allows users to fully browse and buy without leaving the application. The eBay app for the iPadTM debuted in the top ten most downloaded free iPad apps in the iTunes Store and delivers a dramatically different, visually compelling shopping experience to browse and purchase the vast selection of products available on eBay. eBay’s suite of mobile apps, including Selling, Classifieds, StubHub and Deals, make selling and buying possible virtually anywhere, anytime. In 2009, eBay’s mobile gross merchandise volume (GMV) – the value of all goods sold – was more than $600 million. eBay expects to generate $1.5 billion in GMV through mobile commerce in 2010.

eBay Inc.’s PayPalTM division has been delivering mobile payments since 2005 and has a mobile app for iPhone®, AndroidTM, BlackBerry® and Windows® Phone 7 smartphones, as well as SMS and WAP-based payments solutions. PayPal offers merchants an easy way for shoppers to checkout on mobile websites via Mobile Express Checkout and mobile developers can use PayPal for in-app payments using PayPal’s Mobile Payments Library. In 2009, $141 million in payments were transacted over PayPal’s mobile applications and PayPal expects to close out 2010 with more than $500 million in mobile payment volume from five million PayPal members worldwide.

For more information on eBay Mobile, visit www.ebay.com/mobile.

About eBay Inc.

Founded in 1995 in San Jose, Calif., eBay Inc. connects hundreds of millions of buyers and sellers globally through eBay, the world’s largest online marketplace, and PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to securely, easily and quickly send and receive online payments. We also reach millions through specialized marketplaces such as StubHub, the world’s largest ticket marketplace, and eBay classifieds sites, which together have a presence in more than 1,000 cities around the world. For more information about the company and our global portfolio of online brands, visit www.ebayinc.com.

All designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.

About Critical Path Inc.

Critical Path Software is a leading mobile application development company, based in Portland, Oregon, built on a foundation of pioneering the growth of new technologies since 1991. The company was one of the first developers to create mobile experiences for the iPhone®, AndroidTM and Windows® Phone 7 platforms. Critical Path Software has helped create mobiles apps that are consistently the top apps in their respective categories, such as lifestyle, shopping, health and fitness and travel. Critical Path Software is a team of talented software developers and quality assurance (QA) professionals, with a constant drive to improve the mobile user experience.

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Alibaba plans China delivery network

On 10.21.10, In Mobile, By Editor

China’s leading e-commerce company, Alibaba Group, is planning to make a huge logistics network across the country as it is dissatisfied with the quality of local delivery services and wants to stay ahead of rising competition in its fast-growing home market.

According to the sources in the company, the group is to set up distribution centres in 52 Chinese cities over the coming two years, Jack Ma, founder and chairman, told management in recent internal strategy meetings. The details of the service are not yet revealed.

The logistics service is designed for users of Taobao, an unlisted group associate which has a strong hold on China’s consumer e-commerce market.

According to Alan Hellawell, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, its platform for trade between consumers and its retail platform where merchants sell to consumers have a combined market share of 83.8%.

Purchases on Taobao already frame more than 70% of domestic couriers’ daily deliveries, and this has caused delays and patchy quality in distribution and delivery as the local logistics companies do not have the capacity to cope with the fast growth in e-commerce.

This trend has led to United Parcel Service, the US package delivery company, moving ahead with plans to establish a domestic service in China.

Alibaba, a business-to-business platform, has left rivals far behind in the consumer e-commerce sector after the launch of its Taobao site in 2003. Taobao has 230 million registered consumer users, compared with 90 million registered on Ebay. But the company is facing new competition. Baidu, China’s leading search engine launched an online mall website recently among with Rakuten, Japan’s largest online shopping mall operator.

As per Mr Hellawell research report, e-commerce revenues in China are still small; they are expected to grow at 42 per cent a year to US$229 billion, or 7.2 per cent of total retail sales, by 2014.

According to the officials, E-commerce in China is still in a nascent stage, but if  Taobao wants to retain the market position it has now, it must up its game.

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Rulers of the world of Mobile Innovation

On 04.14.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: When innovation in the telecom sector is highlighted, surprisingly, it is believed that it’s not the highly and technologically advanced European countries or super power America which is at the fore front, but the Asian countries like Japan and South Korea which have emerged as the world leader in mobile innovation.

Although the above fact has been questioned every now and then, Japan’s superiority in the field of mobile innovation is still undeniable. The innovative world of Japan’s telecom sector is reflected through the ubiquity of mobile Internet usage, 90% 3G penetrations in the island and many more. The cultural uniqueness of the country has been attributed as one of the factor behind the success.

Even urban China and India are moving with leaps and bounds and might over take Tokyo and Seoul in the near future while Turkey has seen an unprecedented growth in mobile marketing and advertising with emerging countries ready to take on the world of mobile money.

All this has raised a very important question. Are European countries and the USA lagging far behind in mobile innovation? The answer to this question can be no! The most talked about names of mobile world like Google, Apple, RIM, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and eBay are the product of the USA. Mobile e-mail or Instant Messaging usage is higher in the US than in Europe. And when it comes to Europe, who can forget GSM standard, the greatest contribution made by the continent to the world.

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Nexus One price lowered by Google

On 01.19.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: While the price of Google’s Nexus phone has been lowered by $100, eBay is planning to sell it for much more. Google has kept the cost of the completely unattached, unlocked version at $529. But T-Mobile customers eligible for a phone upgrade can have it for $279 from $379. And those who sign up for new two-year T-Mobile contracts can buy the handset for $179.

According to Google, those without data plans were paying $279 for the Nexus One, and those with data plans were being charged $379. The company after working with T-Mobile is now able to offer the higher upgrade discount to all existing fully eligible T-Mobile subscribers.

eBay on the other hand is optimistic to resell the phone for between $300 to $1,000.

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eBay to sell 65% of its stake in Skype for $2 billion

On 09.02.09, In Mobile, By admin

eBay has agreed to sell 65 per cent of its stake in Skype for $1.9 billion in cash and a note of $125 million to an investor group led by Silver Lake and participated by Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The company will retain 35 per cent stake in Skype.

The deal, which values the internet calling service at $2.75 billion, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009. eBay had acquired Skype in 2005 by paying $3.1 billion to its founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis.

Skype is a strong standalone business, but it does not have synergies with our e-commerce and online payments businesses,” John Donahoe, president and CEO, eBay, has said. As a separate company, we believe that Skype will have the focus required to compete effectively in online voice and video communications and accelerate its growth momentum.”

In April 2009, eBay announced plans to separate Skype from the company, beginning with an IPO in 2010. The decision followed a year-long review of Skype within eBay’s portfolio. As it prepared for an IPO, the company said it would naturally consider bids for Skype that offered an attractive valuation. According to John Donahoe, the deal offered by the investor group achieved that.

This deal achieves our goal of delivering short- and long-term value to eBay and its stockholders, without the possible delays and market risk of an IPO,” Donahoe has said. Selling Skype now at this great valuation, while retaining an equity stake, makes sense for the company. And it allows us to focus all of our energies on the opportunities in front of PayPal and eBay.”

In 2008, Skype generated revenues of $551 million, a 44 per cent increase compared to 2007. Total eBay revenues for 2008 were $8.5 billion. Registered Skype users reached 405 million by the end of 2008, a 47 per cent increase from 2007. Skype is claimed to attract hundreds of thousands of new users each week.

via Alootechie.

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