Softbank and PayPal form joint venture for mobile payment services (Japan)
Softbank and PayPal have come together to offer mobile payment services in the country. According to reports, the venture is worth $25 million and will be headed by the director of Softbank Mobile, Hiroaki Kitano.
As per a report by the register, John Donahoe, president and CEO of PayPal parent eBay, said that their Our Softbank partnership and launch of PayPal Here will make it easier for millions of merchants in Japan to grow their businesses and for consumers to easily pay anytime, anywhere.
Further, customers will receive the newest Japanese version of the PayPal app, which helps users locate shops that accept PayPal Here payments and transfer the cash with a quick tap on their phone. The business will then receive the customer’s name and picture so that it can verify the payment.
Ericsson helps implement mobile ticketing service in Florence (Italy)
Azienda Trasporti dell’Area Fiorentina (ATAF, the public transport authority in Florence, Italy) has launched its Mobile Ticketing service in partnership with Ericsson and mobile operators TIM, Vodafone, Wind and 3 Italia. As per a report by the company, the service allows customers of these operators to buy public transport tickets by text message, charging the cost to their mobile account.
Through this initiative, the Italian operators are strengthening their commitment to Mobile Pay, a platform launched in May 2011 to expand the use of mobile technology as a payment method. ATAF is the first public transport administration in Italy to implement mobile payment services. The system is convenient for passengers because a mobile phone is all they need to make a payment, and the cost is charged to their existing mobile account, so no registration or credit system is necessary.
Mobile ticketing represents a new step toward the mass adoption of m-commerce, a concept that transforms mobile devices into mobile wallets to provide a new method of payment for goods and services. In a study on preferred mobile services conducted by the Politecnico di Milano (Polytechnic University of Milan) in Italy, 65 percent of respondents said they were interested in mobile ticketing.
Ericsson is the world leader in mobile charging and billing, with more than 1.6 billion subscribers using its solutions. Prior to the 2012 Mobile World Congress, held in Barcelona, Spain, Ericsson launched its new extended suite of m-commerce solutions and services, designed to accelerate access and interconnection between the emerging m-commerce ecosystem and the financial world to fast-track the next generation of mobile financial services.
World Bank selects Michael Joseph to expand m-banking
The former CEO of Kenya’s Safaricom, Michael Joseph, has been appointed as the advisor for World Bank on mobile payment services. Safaricom effectively created the market for mobile banking services when it launched the hugely successful M-PESA platform, which has been imitated in many other countries since then.
Michael Joseph is joining the bank under its new fellowship program, which was set up to tap new expertise into its development work and strengthens its knowledge network.
The former Chief Executive Officer of Safaricom feels deeply honored to have been selected as the first fellow by the World Bank and is delighted to work with the leading development institution and be a part of the global effort to fight poverty.
As a World Bank Fellow, Joseph will provide strategic advice to the World Bank and governments beyond Africa on policy and regulatory issues to promote development of mobile banking and mobile payments.
According to Johannes Zutt, World Bank Country Director for Kenya, sharing knowledge on telecommunications innovations, including mobile money, can make an important contribution to Africa’s reform and development. Michael Joseph’s participation in the World Bank Fellows program will leverage the Bank’s interventions in technology and financial services in new frontiers in line with our new Africa Strategy.
Mobile payment services launched in India
Mobile payment services, has been launched for the first time in India which will allow seamless and real-time fund transfer from one person’s bank account to another.
Launching the Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS), which currently has seven banks including the largest lender SBI on board, Reserve Bank Deputy Governor, Shyamala Gopinath, stated that it has the potential to change the retail payment landscape in India which boasts of 600 million mobile subscribers and 300 million bank accounts.
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which has been promoted by 10 banks, will act as the settlement agency between banks and deliver the back-end support for the system to be operational.
According to NPCI’s Chief Executive, A P Hota, this is the first-of-a-kind system in the country and the real power would be when it starts delivering in the rural areas.
A bank account holder will have to get his mobile money ID (MMID) from the bank which will be his ID for mobile-commerce transactions.
The bank installs a special application on his mobile phone from where the remitting will be done. Once the process is complete, the bank account holder can remit money to anyone, provided he has the receiver’s MMID and mobile phone number. In case of a lower-end phone where the application cannot be installed, money can also be transferred through SMS.
China Unicom to launch mobile payment services next month
If sources are to be believed, China Unicom plans to implement commercial mobile payment services in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing in November.
According to the source, Unicom will introduce the services to users by exchanging their SIM cards for free or granting them new mobile phones for free.
Unicom has inked the deal with China UnionPay to launch its mobile payment services through UnionPay’s ATMs.
Earlier Unicom conducted trial application of the services in the four cities, attracting over one million users.
Visa and SK Telecom Announce Plans to Launch Mobile Payments Using Universal SIM Card and Over-the-Air Technologies
Visa International and SK Telecom today announced plans to launch what they expect to be the world’s first contactless payment application on a universal SIM (USIM(1)) card which is personalized over-the-air (OTA(2)). Visa and SK Telecom plan to implement this large-scale commercial service in South Korea
in April 2007 with an OTA solution based on Visa’s recently announced mobile platform. The two organizations also agreed to develop new business models and to seek business opportunities overseas by spreading the OTA-based USIM service. Overseas cooperation activities will include efforts to establish
global standards for OTA personalization based on the platform being utilized in the Visa – SK Telecom program.
“This collaboration is a significant step forward, especially in a mobile market as advanced as South Korea where consumers are already aware of mobile banking applications and are keen to see utility and services expanded,” said Gordon Cooper, regional head, mobile payments, Visa Asia Pacific. “Bringing
together one of the world’s most innovative mobile operators with a leading global payment network opens up immense opportunities for the mobile payments business globally. Our collaboration is an example of convergence in action with mobile phone subscribers able to make Visa Wave contactless payments at the more than 50,000 contactless readers at merchants in Korea.”
The combination of the OTA and USIM technologies is aimed at speeding up the growth of mobile payments in South Korea because of the convenience it offers consumers – fast, secure and direct access to new payment applications. South Korea is an innovative market with close to 40 million mobile
subscribers and more than 83 percent penetration for mobile services(3).
“Through an early pilot and close cooperation since 2002, our work with Visa has already brought a great deal of experience in mobile payments,” said Joo Sik Lee, senior vice president, SK Telecom. “This year we will see real advancement in bringing mobile payment solutions to consumers. SK Telecom is
the leading operator in Korea with about 20 million mobile phone subscribers and increasingly we expect to see high demand of our new USIM-equipped 3G phones that will benefit from this OTA service. A commercially scalable OTA service, modeled on the recently announced Visa mobile platform, is a critical
first component of our overall vision for mobile payments – and this project is an important step in moving towards that vision.”
Using SK Telecom 3G phones, the launch is planned to initially involve 30,000 SK Telecom subscribers. They will be able to install the Visa Wave contactless payment application directly onto their handsets via OTA without having to visit their bank. The user simply sends a message to the bank requesting the Visa payment application. The bank then sends the application through mobile internet into the secure USIM chip. As the payment application resides on the subscribers’ USIM card, they will not be restricted to making payments only from that device. SK Telecom 3G subscribers who wish to change
to a new handset need only move the USIM card to the new device.
“Visa’s strategy for mobile payments offers new revenue opportunities for mobile operators and merchants not only in Asia Pacific but around the world,” said Gaylon Howe, Jr., executive vice president, global strategy, products and innovation, Visa International. “Using SK Telecom 3G phones, the launch is
anticipated to be the largest and most significant OTA service in the world, and comes on the back of last month’s mobile platform launch as an example of the benefits of bringing together the best of the mobile and payment industries.
Visa’s mobile platform is a set of mobile services and enabling technologies that will allow banks and mobile operators to develop new mobile payment services for individual markets. A key component of that platform is the standardization of security requirements for OTA downloads of financial
data to mobile devices. SK Telecom’s OTA service, provided by Cassis International, is designed to enable Visa Wave contactless payment applications and cardholder account data to be downloaded to consumers’ phones securely and reliably. Visa Wave contactless payment removes the need to swipe
or insert a smart card into a payment reader. The customer simply waves the card or phone to make a purchase.
For Best Practices/ Case Studies on Mobile Money – Banking, Remittances, Commerce & Payments. Please contact Christina@WirelessFederation.com
