Category: Featured News

The online search giant has now added itself to the near field communication nonprofit industry association.

Google has taken another step to underline the increasing interest it has in NFC technology by joining the board of directors for the industry association that has taken on the task of moving its use forward on a global scale.

The organization is a nonprofit that is geared toward increasing near field communication use worldwide.

The internet search giant is now a contributor to the NFC Forum, which accepted its participation as of Tuesday. Google, the owner of Android, has a considerable interest in NFC technology for a number of reasons, including its own mobile payments projects which have not been taking off at quite the pace that was expected.

Google had previously been a part of the NFC technology forum at a Principal level.

Following Tuesday, Google’s membership was upgraded to the Sponsor level at the NFC technology organization. Having reached the very top level of membership at the NFC Forum, this entitled the industry giant to a seat on the Board of Directors.

According to the NFC Forum Chairman, Koichi Tagawa, “As both a mobile operating system and NFC payment solution provider, Google brings a great deal of knowledge and experience to our Board.”

The Chairman went on to say that “The NFC Forum – and NFC users everywhere – will benefit greatly from the contributions of Google and our new members from around the world.” This is the belief upon which the organization was founded and that drives it to progress NFC technology around the world for a number of different uses.

The forum has said that it is still adding innovative companies from all over the world to its membership list and that the fact that this roster is growing at such a rate is a clear reflection of the “growing momentum for the adoption and implementation of NFC technology.” Though Google is an important addition to the Board of Directors, the organization does not feel that it will be the last important addition to the group. As adoption and awareness increases, so will the length and quality of this list.

This new service is geared toward companies that receive funds through traditional paper checks.

WePay, a startup located in Palo Alto, California, has just announced that it is taking its first steps into the mobile payments marketplace by using its technology to help to replace paper checks.

The first app from the company was released last week and is designed for use by iOS only.

Though the company had previously provided online services, this app opens it up to mobile payments on iPhones and iPads. The application allows both the owners and employees of small sized businesses to be able to process credit card transactions and create invoices through their tablets and smartphones.

Though this may sound similar to other mobile payments services, it does stand out in some ways.

According to the CEO of WePay, Bill Clerico, though it may sound as though it is somewhat like Square or GoPayments, it is unlike them because it does not use an external credit card reading devices in order to make the transactions faster to process. Instead, the digits of the cards will be entered into this system the “old fashioned” way, but using a numeric keypad to type them in.

Clerico explained that “If you’re running a food truck or something where you have hundreds of customers a day, there is no way you’re going to use our app,” however he did go on to say that the app is not aimed at those customers. Instead, it is meant for businesses that employ 10 or fewer people, and whose transactions are primarily made up of checks. He explained that “I think our biggest competitor is paper.”

Clerico also added that when all is said and done, this mobile payments app means that small businesses can process transactions in a number of different ways, and this will help to keep them all in one place. He believes that this is an important step for the company, as smartphones and tablets are becoming increasingly important for processing, and desktops are losing importance in this area. He feels that the niche that his company has found will help to secure its position in the “noisy” market.