Tag: MasterCard

Mobile shopping is on the rise in the Asia-Pacific region

| July 28, 2015

Consumers in the region are showing favor for mobile commerce

MasterCard has released the results of a new survey that show that mobile shopping is expanding quickly in the Asia-Pacific region. Several countries within the region are beginning to see exponential growth in the mobile commerce sector as more consumers gain access to smartphones and tablets. New mobile shopping services are becoming very popular in this region as well, which is making it easier for consumers to use their mobile devices to shop online and, in some cases, in physical stores.

Vietnam is seeing healthy growth when it comes to mobile shopping

Vietnam is currently ranked as fifth when it comes to the growth of mobile shopping in the Asia-Pacific region. The country falls behind Malaysia, Taiwan, New Zealand, and India when it comes to mobile commerce growth. The country ranks eight when it comes to the ratio of consumers shopping with a mobile device, but the percentage of consumers making a purchase from a smartphone in the past three months grew significantly. By the end of 2014, 45.2% of those with smartphones had made a purchase with their device, up from the 39.4% that did so in 2013.

China and India are leading the way in mobile commerce growth

Mobile Shopping on the rise in Asia-Pacific regionChina is currently ranked first in terms of the likeliness for consumers to make a mobile purchase. Chinese consumers taken a strong interest in mobile shopping, largely due to the efforts made by companies like Alibaba, which have worked to make mobile commerce more accessible to consumers throughout the country. India’s mobile shopping space is growing quickly, as well, and the country is becoming one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world.

New opportunities are emerging for retailers in Vietnam

Vietnam holds a great deal of promise when it comes to mobile shopping. The country’s rapidly growing smartphone penetration is creating new opportunities for retailers and organizations involved in mobile commerce. As new services come to the country, more consumers are likely to become involved in mobile shopping and use their devices to make purchases both online and in physical stores.

Mobile payments security is gaining stream

| July 14, 2015

Organizations are showing more support for security solutions as they become involved in mobile payments

As organizations become more invested in mobile payments, they are also becoming more invested in security. Two topics have emerged in the mobile space that could have a major impact on the payments space: Biometrics and authentication. Authentication has long been an aspect of the commerce world that has been put to use for the sake of security, but biometrics is relatively new to this field. Biometric technology, in particular, could become the single most effective way to protect the financial information of consumers.

Biometrics are gaining prominence in the mobile space

Biometric technology makes use of biological information to secure a transaction and data. Fingerprints are one of the ways that this technology ensures that consumers remain safe. As this technology improves, however, fingerprints are no longer the only thing that can be used to secure a transaction. Alibaba, one of the largest e-commerce entities in the world, recently began testing a new feature for the Alipay platform, owned by Ant Financial, and affiliate of Alibaba, that is intended to make payments safer. The feature is called “Smile To Pay,” and makes use of facial recognition technology to authenticate a mobile payment.

MasterCard sees a promising future in facial recognition technology as well as tokenization

Mobile Payments and SecurityMasterCard is also becoming a major player in the improved security of mobile payments. The company has been promoting tokenization for some time, which involves converting financial information into unique digital tokens that can be used to approve transactions. MasterCard is also becoming more invested in facial recognition technology, suggesting that this technology may be the next step in the evolution of mobile security.

Security continues to grow as a priority as mobile payments gain momentum among consumers and businesses alike

Mobile payments have long been plagued by security concerns, and these concerns have introduced a wide variety of solutions, some of which have been more effective than others. With companies becoming more involved in the mobile payments space, advanced security solutions, such as biometrics, are beginning to gain more support.