This may seem odd to put in a post but at Contactless Intelligence we thought that we would start releasing on the Contactless Intelligence site, the Weekly News Feed that we send out on a Monday morning. It’s a round-up of all the interesting articles we came across and tweeted the previous week. A kind of catch-up, if you will, for those not using Twitter as a real-time information source. We’ll be publishing our news feed on this site every Tuesday for a few weeks to see if our readers are interested. Enjoy.
After the release of last weeks report, commissioned by an ATM manufacturer, concerning the British public’s love of cash, we follow up this week with a Barclaycard commissioned report that tells us 80% of the British public recognises the ‘contactless payments accepted’ symbol with contactless transactions passing the one-millionth and month mark. In other words – everything is on schedule.
Or is it? That’s the difficulty in looking at these surveys, released during slow periods in the yearly news cycle (http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-OD ). Many of these reports want to paint too dramatic a picture – It was a success! – It was a failure! The truth lies, well, somewhere in the middle. Yes, contactless payments have made a huge leap forward but we are in no way, shape or form out of the woods yet. Seriously – 80% recognition factor? Only a million-transactions a month? These don’t really say that much yet. I personally don’t like these kind of reports as they give a kind of ‘mission accomplished’ feel to something that is going to require a lot more time and effort to achieve: a lasting change in payment behaviour and preferences, in favour of contactless transactions, as opposed to Chip and PIN or cash.
While I’m on a roll, let me make noises about another pet hate that I have at the moment – press notices that are released with absolutely nothing to back them up. My case in point is this avalanche of releases based around the use of the mobile POS dongle in the ‘Square’ mode. Last week saw another two announcements go out; this time from UK-based start-up SumUp (http://tcrn.ch/OWHq31 ) and UK/Germany-based Payleven. These two companies also join the likes of mPowa and iZettle in payment acceptance dongles for tablets and smart phones.
The problem? Despite their news release, (that basically consists of ‘Hey everyone – we have this fantastic news product – look at us – we’ll rule the market’), we can’t find anyone to talk to. I don’t mean no-one will talk to us. I mean that we can’t find anyone – even on their websites. Especially when we look at Payleven. I get really irritated when I come across this kind of thing. The market for mobile payments and mobile POS is already a little messy as companies fight for share in a market that is experiencing inflection points (see Intel’s Andy Grove http://bit.ly/PUmJc4). But wannabe start-ups with venture backing and no understanding as to how to approach the market makes it complicated and messy for everyone involved.
But what could be more easier to understand than ‘first come, first served’? That’s what’s happening in the Czech Republic at the moment. At the nd of last week, Visa Europe, Komerční banka, Telefónica and Samsung announced that they were bringing mobile payments to the Czech Republic. The first 2,000 owners of a Samsung Galaxy SIII, who show up at 19 specialised O2 Guru stores across the Czech Republic, can simply swap their existing SIM card with a special payment SIM card. These SIM cards are available for free, with a pre-charged credit of 250CZK (10 EUR) from Komercni Banka and enable users to pay for goods and services with their mobile phones (http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-OO ). This launch builds upon the success of the pilot project carried out last year which, sources say, proved that the market was ready for this payments innovation. Now to me, that’s easy to understand and is a true gauge of interest and involvement. I can’t wait to see what the results are …
Oh, and for all our mainland Europe Newsfeed readers who are reading this on a Tuesday morning – sorry, but a bank holiday in the UK delayed release for a day.
Steve Atkins – Contactless Intelligence
This week on C-ITV
- Google Wallet: Make Your Phone Your Wallet http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-P2
- VIDEO: Google Wallet: Carry Your Wallet on the Web http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-OX
- Bell ID and TrustNorway partner for TSM in NFC Mobile http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-OS
- VeriFone cashes in on Nigerian Cash-Less Lagos initiative http://wp.me/pQLgk-Nw
- Cubic’s Go Card Passes 3 Million in Australia http://wp.me/pQLgk-Ns
- NFC Mobile Payments Launch in the Czech Republic http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-OO
- Australia checks out Mastercard PayPass at Coles http://wp.me/pQLgk-Nh
- Estonia looks to NFC mobile payments http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-Oy
- iZettle for Android now available online and in Telia shops http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-Ot
- Indentive payment solution used at music festivals and stadiums – good news after NASDAQ warning. http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-Ol
- VIDEO: Xperia™ SmartTags – getting started. http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-Of
- Hackers gain access to mobile payments of more than 500,000 users in China http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-Oa
- Contactless logo recognised by 80% of Brit public – contactless transactions pass 1 million per month milestone http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-OD
Payments & m-Commerce
- Australia: RBA wants payment system reform http://bit.ly/NAepQr
- Mobile Money catching on worldwide as banks join the action http://bit.ly/OrT094
- MTN Zambia supports Zesco mobile payments http://bit.ly/OrTgoz
- Dunkin’ Donuts mobile payment app debuts http://bit.ly/OrTewJ
- PayPal could heat up mobile payments race if McDonald’s test pays off http://reut.rs/OrT9cG
- Proxama’s comment on Google’s Cloud-based wallet approach http://bit.ly/RyoJdr
- Visa’s wave and pay technology fails to win Olympic gold http://bit.ly/SRclQP
- Square outage squelches payments http://cnet.co/O70KuU
- Make Way For Another European Square: SumUp Launches With $20M+ In Backing http://tcrn.ch/OWHq31
- Google Wallet to add P2P? http://bit.ly/Q7xqcT
- Google’s new cloud Wallet – is it secure? http://bit.ly/Q7xn0A
- Portuguese restaurants and hotels develop mobile payments http://bit.ly/Q7xgSS
- Premium public smoking rooms with contactless payments opening in Tokyo http://vrge.co/Q7xN7q
NFC & Mobile
- MicroSDs: After Two Years of Trials, Questions Remain About Marketability http://bit.ly/SRcfZq
- If Apple makes NFC its next revolution http://bit.ly/SRc4NB
- Falls Creek becomes first NFC enabled town in Australia http://bit.ly/SRaPhn
- NFC to POS — Check and mate: The end game for key loggers http://bit.ly/Rypcw8
- Singaporean Mobile Operators Launch NFC Payment on Android Phones http://bit.ly/O70tbt
Transportation, Ticketing & Loyalty
- Fiji: E-ticketing to begin September 3 http://bit.ly/OrSYOv
- Israel: Mobile parking application co sPARK raises $1.5m http://bit.ly/OrSNCP
- UK: East Coast line to use ‘smartcard’ ticketing system http://bit.ly/OrT34C
- German m-parking ticket Simty ceases operations http://bit.ly/RyoJKe
- RingGo cashless parking comes to Stockport http://bit.ly/SRcfbK
- Australia: Contactless taxi payments set to replace cash: Cabcharge http://zd.net/O70xYT
Other News & Opinion Articles
- Ingenico announces contactless payment acceptance with payWave in Russia http://bit.ly/OWGko3
- India: Smart cards to curtail fleecing by contractors http://bit.ly/NAevaP
- SmartDebit Comment on Contactless Payment Survey Results http://bit.ly/Ryp2Vu
- PAYBOX from VeriFone’s Point Group Drives Mobile Orders to McDonald’s in France http://bit.ly/RyoXBd
- Chasing Apple? Microsoft’s NeoMedia QR Code Patent Deal Puts More Focus On Geometric Boxes http://tcrn.ch/O70c8x
- Alien Technology Partners to Develop World’s First RFID Reader Network Application for iPhone http://mwne.ws/O708Wa
- Panasonic to Expand Smart Home Appliance Lineup with Full-Scale Launch of Smart Cloud Services http://bit.ly/O70AUm
