Tag: mobile payments market

PayPal to undergo a major rebrand in order to beat out the competition it is facing from other companies

PayPal is about to undergo a massive and somewhat unexpected rebranding. The eBay-owned company has been operating for several years and has managed to avoid making any serious brand changes for the majority of its existence. Now, however, PayPal is seeing competition in the mobile payments market rise to new heights, which has the company somewhat worried about its ability to continue standing out to consumers from amongst its competitors.

Campaign to focus primarily on the North American and European markets

The rebranding campaign will be a global effort and will involve the adoption of a new logo and a new slogan, which will be “powering the people economy.” Australia is expected to be the first market to see the changes being made to PayPal. The associated marketing campaign for the rebranding initiative will focus primarily on the North American and European market after launching in Australia. PayPal currently boasts of one of the strongest mobile commerce presences in these two markets.

PayPal aims to beat back competition coming from large companies

PayPal has managed to establish a strong foothold in the mobile space because it was one of the first to begin engaging mobile consumers aggressively. Over the past few years, however, other companies have been growing more mobile-centric, taking note of the growing number of consumers that are taking part in mobile shopping and payments. Large companies like Apple and Google have been making a move to break into the mobile commerce space, and they could potentially replace PayPal as one of the most powerful names in the mobile field.

Competition continues to benefit consumers, but be harmful to some companies

The large number of companies, both old and new, beginning to participate in the mobile commerce space has created a very competitive atmosphere within the sector. An abundance of competition has been a benefit for consumers, as it has given them access to a wide range of mobile commerce platforms to choose from, but this competition has also made it difficult for companies to establish themselves as leaders in the mobile field.

As smartphone based transactions take off at breakneck speed, everyone is trying to hop aboard.

The speed with which mobile payments services are growing and are becoming accepted have now made it clear to most large banks that if they want to be able to remain relevant into the future, they will need to be able to offer their customers the ability to pay for goods and services through the use of smartphones.

Many telecoms and credit card companies are also hopping on board this massive trend.

Even retailers are starting to come up with their own opportunities to hop onto the mobile payments bandwagon and are coming up with their own unique strategies. As the shift toward smartphones as a platform continues, a growing number of companies from massive international giants to small mobile app development startups are trying to turn themselves into important players in this sector.

As mobile payments adoption becomes more common, the competition for those positions is growing.

In fact, it has already reached the point that solutions providers are trying virtually anything to carve out their share of this market, and to continue clawing to broaden that share. Unfortunately, as this continues to occur at an increasingly rapid rate, it is also causing this particular market to fragment. The technology as a whole is owned by many groups and within each group there is a flood of different players. Every one of them is looking to dominate as opposed to creating a consistent experience overall.

The result has been the development of what David Sear, Weve managing director, called a “mess”. He pointed out that “It is confusing for people and for banks, as well as being costly all round.” He explained that scalability is critical in order to make this market work. While it is currently questionable whether the situation is contributing to bank revenues in any way, it is undoubted that these institutions must hang onto it, regardless, in order to succeed in the future.

This fact makes the future of mobile payments extremely hard to predict. The form of it, at the moment, suggests that it will only continue to become more muddied and complex before it has the ability to improve.