Regulations spark backlash from businesses and consumers interested in mobile commerce

The People’s Bank of China has announced that it is considering revising the caps it has placed on mobile payments. This comes as response to backlash from consumers and Internet firms alike, claiming that the caps placed on mobile payments were unnecessary and inappropriate. The caps were introduced as part of new regulations proposed by the People’s Bank of China. These regulations were meant to provide consumers and businesses with more security in the mobile commerce field while also introducing new standards to the mobile sector.

Regulations had placed caps on the amount of money consumers could spend through their mobile devices

The proposed regulations would have placed a cap on payments made from a mobile device to $1,630 per year, with an $800 cap on any single purchase made through a mobile device. These caps are considered to limit the mobile commerce sector significantly, making it difficult for retailers to engage consumers that are becoming more reliant on their mobile devices. Large companies with a vested interest in the mobile commerce field, such as Alibaba, have taken issue with the caps placed on mobile payments by the People’s Bank of China.

China is a prominent market for mobile commerce

China has become one of the most active mobile commerce markets in the world. The country is home to both Alibaba and Tencent, which have a powerful presence in the digital space. Both companies have been focusing more heavily on mobile commerce in recent months in order to accommodate the growing demand for mobile services coming from consumers. These consumers have become quite active in mobile commerce as well and have criticized the caps being placed on their ability to pay for products from mobile devices.

People’s Bank of China may remove the caps being placed on mobile purchases through new regulations

The People’s Bank of China is currently looking into revisions to its proposed regulations. These revisions would include either removing or reducing the cap being placed on mobile payments. Doing so would allow consumers and businesses to continue focusing on the mobile commerce space more aggressively in the future.

A recent news report issued by eMarketer has suggested that the social network is eating into the search engine giant’s share.

The size of the global mobile marketing share from Facebook, which had been just over $3 billion, last year, is now maintaining a steady climb and is expected to start to cut into the share that had previously been held by Google, said eMarketer in a report that it issued in recent news.

Combined, Google and Facebook make up more than 66 percent of the global mobile ad spend.

That figure is as of 2013, the latest complete year of data. That increased by more than double to reach $17.96 billion, when compared to the same statistic for 2012. At the same time, eMarketer’s mobile marketing report was quick to point out that “Google still owns a plurality of the mobile advertising market worldwide, taking a portion of nearly 50 per cent in 2013, but the rapid growth of Facebook will cause the search giant’s share to drop to 46.8 per cent in 2014, eMarketer estimates.”

Mobile marketing revenue at Facebook was worth 53 percent of Facebook’s overall ad revenue in Q4 2013.

This was a massive rise when compared to the year before. In fact, the portion of the mobile ad revenue rose by 23 percent from where it had been in the same quarter in 2012. Revenue from advertising, overall, had been 2.34 billion in the last quarter of last year.

The report pointed out that the size of the market share at Facebook in particular is getting larger. In 2012, it represented only 5.4 percent of the worldwide ad market. Last year, that had risen tremendously, to bring it to 17.5 percent of the global advertising market. The prediction that the report made for this year was that it will reach 21.7 percent by the time that it comes to a close.

The speed with which smartphone based advertising has taken over the ad revenue for the social network is indicative of its future. In 2012, only 11 percent of the net global ad revenues at Facebook were over the mobile marketing channel. Last year, that ballooned to 45.1 percent.