Tag: mobile payments platform

China to be one of the few countries to have a unified, national payments platform

China is currently working to develop a national mobile payments platform. Once the platform is launched, China will be one of the very few countries in the world to have a unified mobile payments system. Chinese consumers have been involving themselves in mobile commerce quite heavily in recent years. As mobile devices become more common throughout the country, people are using these devices to shop online more regularly. The country’s retailers have also been embracing mobile commerce in an effort to connect with a new generation of consumers.

Payment platform expected to make use of NFC Technology

China’s mobile commerce platform is to make use of NFC technology. The country believes that NFC has a bright future in mobile commerce because of the growing number of devices that are making use of this technology. NFC has formed the backbone of mobile commerce for some time and has been praised for its ability to transmit digital information over short distances efficiently. Unfortunately, mobile devices that do not support NFC technology are unable to use NFC-based platforms unless these platform offer support for devices that are not NFC-enabled.

Several organizations come together to help develop national payments platform for China

The China Constrction Bank, China CITIC Bank, China Everbright Bank, China UnionPay, and China Mobile have been linked to the development of the country’s national payments platform. These organizations already have some experience in mobile payments and have been promoting mobile finance for some time. According to the People’s Bank of China, mobile commerce is currently undergoing a standardization process wherein consumers are becoming more comfortable with purchasing products from their mobile devices.

Chinese consumers favor platforms that do not rely solely on NFC technology

Payments processed through NFC-based services represent approximately 0.8% of mobile spending throughout China. Many retailers have opted to support other mobile commerce services that do not rely entirely on NFC technology to engage consumers. Given the low availability of NFC-enabled devices, consumers have shown favor for NFC-free platforms that allow them to shop for and purchase products online.

Apple’s CEO has placed the spotlight back on the ability to complete transactions with iOS devices.

Tim Cook, the chief executive at Apple, recently dropped some hints regarding a mobile payments strategy for the iPhone manufacturer, as well as for the use of the Touch ID feature that was recently added to their mobile devices.

Though this was clearly not an announcement, it was certainly a hint about things to come.

Cook linked the idea of mobile payments with the Touch ID system technology that is included in the latest smartphone releases from Apple. When he held a conference call with analysts, discussing the earnings of the company, he stated that this is sector “we’ve been intrigued with,” and added that “It was one of the thoughts behind Touch ID.”

The feature was unveiled as a security enhancement but could also provide mobile payments verification.

The TouchID until now has been meant for making it easy and convenient to unlock the iPhones without having to enter a password. That said, ever since it was first seen, there have been speculations made regarding its potential use for verifying an individual’s identity if the device is used for making a purchase.

That said, Apple has not yet given any other online merchants the opportunity to use the device for making verifications of purchases. It has also not provided access to the fingerprint scanner of Touch ID to third parties. Equally, it hasn’t provided third party access to the Secure Enclave verification computing resources from A7 for any other reasons.

During the conference call, Cook did say that there has been a positive response from the public to the existing form of Touch ID functionality. He expressed that Apple is seeing that people enjoy being able to use it for verification in order to make purchases from the iTunes store. He said that they have been watching people liking the opportunity to purchase content ranging from books to music and movies. His description of the purchases using Touch ID was “incredibly simple and easy and elegant.”

More specifically, he did go as far as to say that in terms of mobile payments, “It’s clear that there’s a lot of opportunity here.”