Tag: mobile commerce

Investors inching away from online and mobile ventures

investors inching away from mobile venturesInvestors show caution in light of lackluster results in mobile space

Once upon a time, Silicon Valley investors had been all too eager to dump money into any online start-up or mobile company that showed some semblance of promise. Now, however, these investors are being increasingly stingy with their money, and for good reason. Investors lost a great deal of hope in the online and mobile sectors due to Facebook’s lackluster stock results when the company went public. The decline of Groupon and the Zynga’s fall from grace have not done much to placate the concerns of investors.

Online and mobile start-ups losing favor with investors

Investors seem to have taken note of the large number of online and mobile start-ups that fail to deliver on their ambitious promises. Investors had been eager to invest in promising ventures because of a desire to not miss the next big thing, especially in the mobile space. These ventures, some of which were launched several years ago, were able to capture the support of investors, but those that remain active have yet to produce any kind of return to these investors.

Study shows more than 1,000 ventures will lose funding this year

CB Insights, a market research firm, recently analyzed some 4,000 start-up e-commerce ventures that were launched and received funding from investors in 2009. The firm discovered that over 1,000 of these start-ups would not be receiving any further funding from their investors this year. The firm notes that approximately $1 billion in angel investments will disappear from this particular sector this year, as investors become much more cautious of the online and mobile ventures they choose to support.

E-commerce platforms likely to see significant hit this year

Internet start-ups are expected to face a problematic year in terms of investments. E-commerce businesses that have not already established themselves are likely to crumble as they see the funding they heavily rely upon disappear. Such ventures require significant investments in order to reach consumers. Without these investments, e-commerce platforms are little more than dysfunctional websites with dysfunctional services.

Secure Element Manager wins Visa approval

secure element manager visa approvalSecure Element Manager has been approved by Visa for the BlackBerry 10

Leading technology company, and creator of the BlackBerry platform, Research In Motion has received approval from Visa for its NFC-based mobile commerce platform, known as Secure Element Manager. The platform is designed to be used with the company’s next generation BlackBerry 10 device. Thus, owners of the BlackBerry 10 will be able to make mobile payments for products thanks to the device’s support of NFC technology and the approval for the system granted by Visa.

Platform may help with security concerns

Visa has shown a great deal of interest in mobile commerce in recent months. The company has become one of the major players in this emerging industry through its various partnerships and the services it provides mobile consumers. The Secure Element Manager helps address one of Visa’s most significant concerns when it comes to mobile commerce: Security. As such, the platform has won the support of Visa, which will allow its customers with BlackBerry 10 devices to use their accounts to make mobile payments.

Security continues to be a problem for mobile commerce

Security has long been an issue that has made mobile commerce somewhat unpopular. NFC technology itself does not boast of any latent security features. As such, many believe that the technology can be easily exploited. If NFC technology is exploited, a consumer’s financial information may be at risk of theft, creating a serious problem for those involved in mobile commerce. Until recently, there have been few efforts to bolster the security of mobile commerce.

Secure Element Manage meets Visa expectations

The Secure Element Manager not only helps keep the financial information of consumers safe, it also acts as a management platform for various mobile commerce systems. The platform meets the strict requirements that Visa has adopted concerning mobile commerce systems, making it one of the few systems that Visa is willing to support. Moreover, it is the only mobile commerce platform for the BlackBerry that has the full support of Research In Motion.