BWild |
February 28, 2013
Mobile commerce growing in the East
PayPal has been making a strong push into the mobile commerce arena recently. The company has long been involved in the world of online payments, but the proliferation of mobile technology has opened up new forms of commerce that PayPal is eager to take advantage of. The company has announced plans to begin expanding its reach across the global mobile commerce market and has set its sights to the East, showing a strong interest in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong sees major activity in mobile commerce sector
Hong Kong is one of the largest economic hubs in the Asian market. Companies with a strong focus on the online world have seen major progress in Hong Kong over the years and companies native to the region have seen aggressive growth in the Philippines, Argentina, South Korea, Sweden, and Russia. PayPal’s Hong Kong division notes that more consumers are relying on their mobile devices to make payments and research products, giving the company an ample opportunity to provide services to these consumers and the businesses of the region.
PayPal expected to increase activity in Hong Kong
Kerry Wong, managing director for PayPal’s operations in Hong Kong, claims that businesses in the region that use the company’s services experienced more growth than their competitors. These companies grew more than the industry average throughout the last 12 months, and many of these businesses have helped increase the regions exports by 2% thanks to the borderless nature of online trading and sales. PayPal expects that companies using its services will continue to see remarkable growth as they begin to embrace mobile commerce more aggressively.
Estimated $20 billion in mobile payments to be processed in 2013
PayPal has high expectations when it comes to online payments in 2013. The company, which boasts of more than 123 million active users worldwide, estimates that it will process over $20 billion in mobile payments globally this year. This is higher than the $14 billion in mobile payments the company processed in 2012.
Extent and Deutsche Telekom join to bring mobile games to Europe
Deutsche Telekom, a leading German telecommunications company, has announced its partnership with Israel-based game company Extent. Together, the two companies have set their sights on mobile games for the Android platform. Through Deutsche Telekom, Extent will be able to embed its GameTanium mobile games platform into the Polish market. Poland has been becoming a more attractive market for the game industry because of the rapid rate of adoption that consumers have been showing mobile devices. Extent believes that the time is right to enter into the market and engage consumers with a new service.
GameTanium to be available in Poland
GameTanium supports more than 150 mobile games, all of which are available for free to those that subscribe to the service. Deutsche Telekom customers will be able to receive a free trail of the service, which will provide them with unlimited access to the platforms assortment of mobile games. Through its partnership with Extent, Deutsche Telekom has become the first telecommunications company in Europe to offer the GameTanium mobile games service to consumers.
Deutsche Telekom predicts success of new mobile games venture
Deutsche Telekom has seen success in a similar partnership with music subscription service Spotify and believes that mobile games can see the same success that digital music distribution has seen in the European market. Consumers throughout Europe have shown a strong interest in mobile games, but Deutsche Telekom will focus on the market in Poland for the initial phases of its partnership with Extent. If the partnership proves successful, the telecommunications company may expand the availability of GameTanium to other parts of Europe.
Game industry beginning to shift as consumers become more mobile
Mobile games continue to show promising growth throughout the world. Consumers have shown a great deal of support for mobile games and the game industry has been working to appeal to these consumers in a greater way. Developers that have traditionally been focused solely on creating console games have begun to develop titles for the mobile space, due to the rising demand for mobile games coming from consumers.
