Author: Denny

Mobile payments competition is growing in Asia

New payment services are being launched throughout Asia

Competition in Asian mobile payments space is heating up. Samsung Electronics, one of the world’s largest mobile device makers, has announced that it will be launching a new payment service in the near future. The company has partnered with Yelopay and six of South Korea’s commercial banks for the endeavor. The new service, dubbed Samsung Wallet, is expected to be made available by the end of this year and will come pre-installed on all of Samsung’s new Galaxy devices.

Samsung Wallet is expected to see a limited release by the end of this year

The Samsung Wallet will support peer-to-peer money transfer as well as allow users to make payments at participating retail locations. There will be no commission charged on transactions made through the new service, which may make it quite popular among businesses looking to involve themselves in digital commerce. Samsung wallet is being designed to support both online and offline payments as well. While the Wallet service is slated for an initial launch at the end of the year, Samsung has not yet detailed a full timeline for commercialization.

LINE looks to break into the Japanese mobile commerce market

Mobile Payments - AsiaIn Japan, mobile service provider LINE is planning to launch its own payment platform with the help of Naver, the country’s largest Internet service provider. The new service, called LINE Pay, is meant to be incorporated into LINE’s existing mobile messenger platform. The service will support mobile payments for digital purchases, as well as banking transactions.

Small companies may find it more difficult to compete in the payments space in the coming years

Mobile commerce has been particularly popular throughout Asia, where the demand for new payment services has been on the rise for some time. Consumers have become quite comfortable with the concept of shopping for and purchasing products with their mobile devices, and many companies are beginning to take steps to provide these consumers with the services they want to use. It may become increasingly difficult for small companies to find traction in Asia, however, due to the increasing number of large companies, like Samsung, looking to break into the digital payments space.

Alibaba invests in mobile marketing and m-commerce as its own profits tumble

The Chinese company is using a new strategy that involves the use of investments to boost profits.

The financial results from Alibaba’s first publicly traded quarter have now been announced and, along with those drooping figures, the company has also revealed its new strategy to inject some life back into its profits by backing investments into mobile marketing and m-commerce.

From July through September, Alibaba saw its net income drop by a dramatic 39 percent.

This occurred despite the fact that the company saw a massive surge of 54 percent in the company’s revenues, based on a powerful user demand. The results that were recently released showed that the company is using a strategy that is not entirely unlike one of its rivals, Amazon, the American e-commerce giant. This strategy involves using investments into mobile marketing, m-commerce, and other areas within itself in order to be able to boost its own growth over the long term.

In October, Amazon.com Inc. had reported experiencing a considerable third quarter loss and is also investing in mobile marketing.

Alibaba - Mobile MarketingThis was the case, even though it had also seen a growth in revenue by 20 percent. It has been pouring its money into itself, hoping to build itself up in order to achieve greater profits over the long term. In this, it has been looking to advertise over smartphones, tablets, and even streaming television, as it promotes and encourages its m-commerce side.

That said, outside of that specific part of the strategy, the two companies have a very different way of operating. Amazon directly sells and distributes products and also works with third party sellers. Alibaba, on the other hand, is not in competition with merchants, nor does it carry any inventory.

Investments into mobile marketing and commerce are set to become an important opportunity for earning potential by the company that is continuing its rapid growth at the same time that all of this is happening around it and within it. It will be very interesting to watch the direction that the company takes throughout the current quarter, which is considered to be a critical one within the American marketplace.