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
In 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.
This acquisition, which was for a reported $260 million, is an effort to expand in the Asian market.
Groupon has just announced its acquisition of Ticket Monster, along with its Q3 results for 2013, as a part of the reveal for its latest strategy for mobile commerce growth, particularly within the Asian marketplace.
They have purchased the company with its specialty in both local and travel offers in this region.
The purchase was for $260 million in both cash and stock. This helps Groupon to obtain a more solid mobile commerce foothold on the local and travel market in the Asian region. The Korea based online company also specializes in product offers. Ticket Monster was first launched in 2010 and its deal with Groupon is expected to close in the first half of next year.
At the moment, Ticket Monster Is owned by LivingSocial, but this mobile commerce deal will change that.
Ticket Monster has experienced year on year billings growth that has been steady and consistent, as its annual figures have come in at $800 million. It was the mobile commerce success, however, that caught the eye of Groupon and that drew it for purchase. The reason is that more than half of the Asian company’s purchases originate from smartphones or tablets. The company currently boasts over 1,000 employees and has over 4 million active customers.
This mobile commerce deal has arrived just as the Q3 financial data was released by Groupon. Its daily deals service during the period that ended on September 30 raked in a record nine million downloads of its app, bringing its overall total to 60 million. This has also helped to contribute to the fact that over half of the sales made in North America are completed by way of smartphones and tablets.
Moreover, mobile commerce at Groupon makes up 40 percent of its total global processed sales. Its active consumers showed a year over year rise by 10 percent, reaching 43.5 million, total. Clearly, this channel has become exceptionally important to the company and it is aiming at progressing in that direction with this latest acquisition.
