Mobile Money
Starbucks has already gone live with the service in their retail stores enabling customers to make a purchase simply by holding their smartphone up to a scanner at the register. The service also recently announced an interesting location-based “check-in” and pay service called “Dwolla Spots” that doesn’t require NFC or a dongle (i.e. Square) at sites where there is POS integration. And of course, there’s an App for Dwolla – iOS as well as Android.
The startup has a grand vision, some heavy-hitters on its management team, and is getting lots of coverage from the technorati. Worth noting that according to Dwolla, they already have signed-up online payment users in all 50 states, passed the $1M mark in fund transfers in February of this year, and their growth rate for payments to online retailers as well as person-to-person payments has increased by an average of 270 percent each month.
Facebook Payments: Rumor has it that Facebook will announce “Facebook Payments” sometime this year. There’s plenty of buzz online if you are interested in reading more.
Noteworthy developments elsewhere: There’s a lot of activity beyond Starbucks and online shopping for Mobile Money that might not be getting headlines, but is worth noting. Some of the locations where Mobile Money can do the most good are those where there is very little infrastructure, in regions that are poor by Western standards. At a Mobile Money Summit (a Tech@State event) organized in August 2010 by the U.S. Department of State, there were a number of companies presenting case studies describing their services being deployed in Africa, the Middle East and parts of South America. In many cases, making and receiving payments for
workers posed unimaginable challenges and risks to personal safety, and making payments for services and utilities were just as daunting. Deploying easy to use, safe and scalable Mobile Payment services over cellular networks, using simple phones (i.e. not smartphones) is the objective, and there are impressive results coming from many of the trials. Companies in this space include: <kopokopo.com. and <Utiba.com.
Terry Pittman is a digital media and marketing strategist who has worked in interactive media since the 1980s with global brands like CBS and AOL, and held founding roles in multiple startups. He currently blogs at FromConcept2Market and Tweets @bleriot.
