Author: Dan Gendro

Google continues work to establish mobile commerce presence

Despite a turbulent launch, Google Wallet continues to show signs of life as Google works to establish a commanding presence in the mobile commerce sector. The Google Wallet’s launch was plagued with serious security issues that threatened the financial information of consumers that used it. This caused many people to avoid the mobile commerce platform for several months after its launch, despite the fact that Google had resolved its security issues within a matter of days. Over the past few months, Google Wallet has been able to attract more users, and Google has been introducing new features to the mobile commerce platform.

Google Wallet receives new features, but may not be able to compete with Apple

Google Wallet now has the ability to facilitate money transfers. The platform is also able to store digital material offered through various loyalty programs that are common within the retail industry. The platform allows users to redeem their rewards through such programs in an convenient fashion. The Google Wallet does, of course, facilitate mobile payments as well. Notably, however, the Wallet does not have a companion application for the iOS platform, which may be an issue considering Apple’s interest in mobile commerce.

iOS 7 puts emphasis on Passbook

Last week, Apple unveiled the iOS 7, which puts some emphasis on the company’s Passbook. The Passbook platform is very similar to the Google Wallet in that it can store digital information from loyalty programs, travel tickets, and other such data. Unlike the Google Wallet, however, the Passbook cannot currently support mobile payments, though it is designed to do so. While Apple has not shown direct support for mobile commerce due to security concerns and other issues, the iPhone is a popular mobile commerce platform. A recent study from AdTruth shows that 57% of mobile commerce purchases were made from iPhones during the first half of 2013.

Lack of NFC support may actually put Apple in the lead

Apple may be establishing a strong edge in the mobile commerce space through a lackadaisical support of third party mobile payment services. The vast majority of these services are not based on NFC technology because the iPhone itself does not support NFC. Google Wallet, however, does make use of this technology. This means that the Wallet can only be used by NFC-enabled mobile devices, which are still very rare when compared to the iPhone.

Research from Ad Age has looked into the way that advertisers feel about that network.

The latest survey from Ad Age has looked into the perceptions that advertisers have developed regarding social media marketing over Facebook, including the adoption of ads on that network and the perception of increases in ROI.

Throughout the last 15 months, Facebook has moved to maturity from having been an experimental channel.

Companies that had previously hesitated to include social media marketing as a significant part of their budgets are now considering the channel to be a natural part of their campaigns and are continuing to boost their spending there. This was a part of the results that were confirmed through the participation of approximately 1,200 subscribers to Ad Age who were polled within the company’s survey in connection with RBC Capital Markets.

This social media marketing survey was conducted in August and was the third of its nature since June 2012.

That June 2012 social media marketing survey occurred just slightly before the IPO at Facebook. This most recent version of the survey has seen an increased percentage of respondents that claim to be using Facebook as a part of their advertising mix. That said, it continues to remain at a steady level greater than 80 percent. At the same time, the specific number who said that they are now advertising over the network has spiked significantly when compared to 15 months before.

Approximately 74 percent of the survey respondents stated that their budgets for Facebook social media marketing now include ad outlays. That number has risen significantly since January 2012, when the figure was 62 percent and even more since June 2012, when it was only 54 percent.

The most recent social media marketing survey included respondents among whom 30 percent identified themselves as employees of ad agencies and 26 percent identified themselves as either marketers or clients. The remainder of the participants were said to be either consultants or employees of media companies.

The increase in the percentage of marketers who are purchasing social media marketing ads from Facebook was said – by Mark Mahaney, RBC Capital analyst – to be a clear indicator of the rising ad income that is headed in Facebook’s direction.