Tag: O2 wallet

O2 Wallet is shutting down in March

O2, a prominent communications company in Europe, has announced that its mobile wallet service will be shut down at the end of March this year. Mobile wallets have been growing in popularity, but the market is currently saturated with a wide variety of these mobile applications, making it difficult for any one service to stand out. Continued focus on a mobile wallet platform that is, essentially, identical to others is becoming an increasing dangerous trap for companies are heavily investing themselves int he world of mobile commerce.

Wallet applications are becoming more plentiful

While O2 is shutting down its mobile wallet service, the company is not expected to pull out of mobile commerce entirely. The O2 Wallet was launched approximately 18 months ago and was considered one of the first wallet applications from a large company. The app was meant to provide consumers with a way to manage their money and other financial information and received a strong following. Over the past year, however, much about the mobile commerce market has changed, leading O2 to believe that its wallet is no longer viable for consumers.

O2 begins focusing more heavily on Weve platform

O2 is now looking for ways to help people manage their money more effectively. Currently, O2 is involved in a joint venture with mobile network operators EE and Vodafone. Through this venture, the companies are working to develop a new mobile commerce platform called Weve. The platform is set to launch in spring of this year and promises to provide consumers with a variety of features that makes managing their financial information and shopping online with a mobile device easier.

Weve attracts strong support

Weve has already won the support of several major banks in the United Kingdom, including Barclays, HSBC, and Lloyds. The mobile commerce platform has also managed to overcome some legal issues concerning Europe’s competition laws. Whether or not O2 will devote the majority of its focus to the mobile commerce platform or decide to develop a new mobile wallet has yet to be seen.

Only just launched in April 2012, the service is going to be abandoned on March 31, 2014.

O2, a mobile network operator in the United Kingdom, has announced its intentions to shut down its mobile wallet service as of the end of March, this year, after only two years of operation.

The service offered a number of different features to its users through their smartphones and tablets.

Among the services available through this mobile wallet was smartphone and tablet based shopping, money transfer and offer services. Moreover, it also included a Visa contactless card and the tracking of transactions. It was originally intended to be one of the services that would be broadening to include the use of NFC technology among its supported tech.

The O2 mobile wallet was among the very first to enter into this part of the smartphone payments space.

A statement released by the carrier said that when they started the service in 2012 they were one of the first around. However, it also added that “Since then lots has changed for us, the market and our customers. So, we’ve decided to close the O2 Wallet to give us time to look into new and better ways to help people manage their money on the move, both in the UK and abroad.”

They did express that the journey itself has been exciting one for the company and it thanked those who took part in it. They also added that “it’s not over yet” and that they will be making other announcements regarding new innovations that would be occurring into the future.

They did want to make it clear that after the end of March, this year, consumers who had previously using the O2 mobile wallet service would no longer be able to do so, nor would they have access to the O2 Money Account Card. This also includes being able to send or receive the service’s Money Messages and being able to use the card or wallet for shopping. Moreover, train tickets will not be purchased through the app and cell phone top ups will also not be available.