Author: Denny

Facebook takes a step toward mobile commerce

| September 27, 2013

New partnerships could give Facebook a foothold in mobile commerce

Facebook has shown some interest in mobile commerce recently, but has yet to take any aggressive action on this interest. The social network facilitates mobile payments, mostly through the variety of social games it supports, but does not boast of a major presence in the mobile commerce sector. That may soon change, however, as Facebook has announced its partnership with PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree. The partnership with these companies may help Facebook gain a foothold in the mobile commerce space.

New service designed to make payments more convenient

Through the partnerships it has made, Facebook intends to deploy its “Autofill With Facebook” service. The service is meant to enhance the payment experience, making purchasing items online more convenient for consumers. The service functions like typical autofill features for web browsers, but focuses on financial information. Using the Autofill service allows consumers to store their financial information with Facebook, which can access this information to fill out payment forms in a convenient manner.

Facebook mobile commerceService is meant to supplement mobile commerce services

The service is not meant to compete with other mobile commerce services. Facebook intends for the Autofill service to be a supplement to mobile commerce, making payments less of a hassle for consumers on mobile devices. Facebook may eventually seek to compete in the mobile commerce space, but is currently content to provide auxiliary support for the wide variety of mobile commerce services that currently exist, all of which are vying for the attention of consumers.

Facebook focuses on marketing

Facebook currently has a strong focus on marketing rather than mobile commerce. The social network is working to become more attractive to marketers by improving its services relating to mobile advertisements. Last year, the social network introduced Facebook Graph Search, which is meant to give users a very deep insight into the various demographics that make use of the social networking platform. This search engine has been relatively well received by marketers.

NBE launches new mobile payments service in Egypt

| September 25, 2013

New mobile payments service comes to Egypt

The National Bank of Egypt, along with the Egyptian Banks Company and Mastercard, has launched a new mobile payments service dubbed “Phone Cash.” The service is meant to provide the growing number of consumers with mobile devices a new and more convenient way to pay for products. Mobile payments have been growing more popular in Egypt and throughout Africa in recent years and the African market has become a relatively promising mobile commerce market.

Phone Cash aims to expand the availability of mobile commerce

Phone Cash is designed to be more inclusive than many other mobile commerce platforms. The National Bank of Egypt is keen to see mobile consumers make use of the service whether they have a bank account or not. As such, the service is available to consumers that do not have an account with the National Bank of Egypt or any of the country’s other banking entities. This expands the availability of the mobile payments service and provides consumers without bank accounts another way to manage their money.

Egypt - Mobile PaymentsApplication to function as a digital wallet

The Phone Cash service is meant to act as a sort of digital wallet. Consumers can download the Phone Cash application and use it to store a variety of financial information. The application allows for money transfers from bank accounts and supports a variety of payment cards, leveraging the funds associated with these cards to make mobile payments. The service is supported by Fawry, one of the largest payment services in Egypt. Phone Cash can, therefore, be used at more than 20,000 Fawry outlets in the country.

Mobile payments grow among young Egyptians

Mobile payments have been growing more prominent in Egypt as more consumers get their hands on smartphones and tablets. These consumers tend to be somewhat young, falling between the ages of 21 and 35. Older consumers have shown more caution when it comes to mobile commerce, either because they do not fully understand how mobile payments work or because they are worried about the security of their financial information.