Visa and Orange have now announced that they will be working together in this new service.
Orange, a French operator group, has now entered into a strategic partnership with Visa, the credit card giant, in order to help to speed up the awareness of using NFC technology for contactless mobile payments in the country.
The operator has also launched a smartphone based prepayment solution in France called Orange Cash.
These two companies are collaborating to make sure that rate by which consumers are discovering mobile payments based on NFC technology will be considerably accelerated in France. Both of these companies have stated that their goal is to boost awareness of the benefits of using near field communications tech for contactless transactions. They feel that France is a solid marketplace for this type of effort as it is already seeing an increasing adoption among consumers.
The companies stated that in the last half year, contactless mobile payments terminals in France have increased by 50 percent.
In the last six months, the number of terminals used by French merchants that include contactless mobile payments has risen by over 50 percent. This means that today there are more than 200,000 active terminals in the country. Moreover, there has been a tremendous NFC technology enabled smartphone deployment in the country, which ensures that a growing number of consumers actually have the necessary tech to complete contactless transactions.
The prepayments service called Orange Cash will become available to subscribers to Orange that have NFC technology compatible smartphones in Caen and in Strasbourg in the first part of 2014. This will be the first stage in a nationwide launch of the mobile payments program within the second quarter of next year.
Customers using this program will need to download the app for Orange Cash from the app store that is applicable to their device, and then simply top up the account with funds by choosing their bank card. In order to actually make a mobile payment through this service, they will simply need to tap their NFC technology enabled device against a compatible payment terminal at the checkout of the retailer’s location.
Visa has high hopes for mobile payments in Asia
Visa has been showing a great deal of attention to the emerging mobile payments scene in Asia. The region has become one of the most active places in the world when it comes to mobile commerce, largely due to the aggressive steps that retailers are taking and the growing proliferation of smartphones and tablets. Visa is one among several financial service firms that have been working to establish a strong presence in the mobile payments sector of Asia and the company sees a great deal of promise in several of the markets located within this region.
Asian Pacific sees a great deal of mobile commerce activity
According to Visa, mobile payments are likely to thrive in markets where card payments are already very common. The company anticipates that mobile payments will see the most aggressive growth in Australia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, which are quickly establishing themselves as hubs for ambitious mobile commerce projects located in the Asian Pacific. The company notes that Japan is also a likely place to see strong growth in mobile payments, due to the fact that many consumers in the country already use their mobile devices to purchase transit tickets.
Security remains a problematic issue
Consumers that regularly use their mobile devices have shown a great deal of comfort when it comes to mobile commerce. These people have been able to acclimate to the idea of mobile payments more easily than those that do not use their smartphones and tablets on a regular basis. There are universal concerns that exist within this sector, of course, the most prominent of which happens to be security. The threat of financial information being stolen and exploited has proven to be a prohibitive issue to many consumers throughout the world.
Asia could present lucrative opportunities to mobile commerce firms
Visa is not solely focused on Asia with its mobile payments endeavors. The company is currently involved in various projects that are taking place around the world. Visa’s primary interest is to make consumers comfortable with mobile payments, but notes that there is a great deal of promise in Asian markets that could prove lucrative to those that manage to provide comprehensive mobile commerce services to the consumers that are demanding them.
