Tag: NFC payments

NFC technology based mobile payments system piloted in Brazil

| February 4, 2013

NFC Technology mobile payments BrazilTIM, a Brazilian carrier, has announced that it is beginning the new program using near field communication.

Wireless carrier from Brazil, TIM, has just revealed that it is launching a mobile payment pilot service that will be based on NFC technology in order to test the effectiveness within the region.

The program is running as a part of a partnership with Banco Itaú, a bank in Brazil.

It is also working with MasterCard, in addition to Redecard (a point of sale manufacturer) and Gemalto, which is a digital security provider. This joint venture pilot project will include a small beta testing group as well as the participation of 100 Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo restaurants.

The carrier has explained that they wish to learn more about the use and behaviors around NFC technology.

This pilot will help them to get to know the way that consumers wish to use NFC technology, what their expectations may be and how it works for restaurants. It will also provide the opportunity to train their employees internally and observe the type of challenges that they may expect as a result of a more extensive rollout.

Based on the results that they experience due throughout the length of the pilot program, TIM has said that it is considering expanding the use of NFC technology enabled mobile payments. This could mean that if the program is successful, the nearly 70 million subscribers at that company will have access to the service as soon as the second half of this year.

According to the TIM Brazil CMO, Roger Solé, “TIM has innovation as a strategic pillar and, once again, comes out ahead with the test of a technology that promises to be an important evolution of mobile. This partnership with Itau and our quest to evaluate the NFC model demonstrates our concern to offer solutions that bring more convenience to customers.”

The NFC technology enabled credit cards will be MasterCard branded. These will be used by the few participants in the pilot program. The over-the air account provisioning will be supplied by Gemalto. They will also be providing their well respected services management solutions. MasterCard PayPass tech will be used for making payments at the restaurant points of sale.

Mobile payments industry takes massive hit with VeriFone withdrawal

| December 19, 2012

Verifone mobile paymentsThe marketplace is rocked by the shocking news that a major player has dropped out.

The CEO of VeriFone, Doug Bergeron, has stunned the direct-to-micromerchant mobile payments world with the announcement that it is stepping out of that marketplace following unprofitable results from its Sail service.

The point-of sale provider’s mcommerce news came as a surprise to the majority of the industry.

As VeriFone had dedicated a great deal of last year and much of this year on the promotion of the growth of mobile payments services, the decision that the company has now made to remove itself from that direct-to-micromerchant space has caused many heads to spin. The announcement was made during the most recent quarterly conference call.

The CEO released the mobile payments news that the company is stepping down.

During the call, Bergeron stated that Sail, its own mobile payments service, has been unprofitable. This program had been giving small businesses the ability to use smartphones and tablets to accept transactions through debit and credit cards. He said that “Customer acquisition costs, either through search engines or TV advertising, cannot and will never justify the razor thin margins produced by merchants with infrequent volumes and extremely high attrition.”

The NFC technology community has also been left blinking in surprise, as it had been looking toward that company to propel forward its adoption, particularly after the iPhone 5 was released without its capabilities.

Bergeron described the mobile payments program at VeriFone as a failure and is now causing many of the other players in the industry to take a second look at their own potential for profitability. This is particularly the case after the CEO questioned the ability of the environment to be profitable at all. The company has announced that all of its assets from that space will now be sold off.

He explained that he felt it is possible to see similar thoughts among the competition as their businesses models are shifted toward wallets services. It is his belief that the only mobile payments players who will be able to survive “this fundamentally challenging business model” will be those who are capable of offering micro merchants other services, as well.