mobile payment predictions for year 2013
TRANSCRIPT
What to Expect from Mobile
Payments in 2013What to expect with mobile payments in the year ahead? Here are some trends that may
become mainstream.
1) Mobile Payments Will gain Wider Acceptance
In Chetan Sharma's mobile predictions survey, 35 percent of respondents said mobile payments will be the big breakthrough in 2013, more than any other category. And we believe that this prediction will indeed come true in 2013. We consume media on our phones, shop on our phones (via eBay, Gilt, etc.), and of course, communicate and take photos. Now, payments and the wallet itself will also go more mobile.
Though as opposed to earlier predictions, this change will be via credit card readers and payment apps like PayPal Here and breakaway success Square, and not via phone waving or tapping (also known as near-field communications, or NFC).
2) Battle For Payment Supremacy Will Continue
The past few years has seen a massive amount of change in the payments world, with a reduction of interchange fees, the infiltration of retailers and non-banks like Starbucks, PayPal, Square,, etc. and the beginning of a shift from plastic to smartphones as the payment device of choice. While past predictions around NFC, an Apple mobile wallet and a cash-less society have not yet come to fruition, there are still no lack of industry luminaries placing bets on how we will transact in the future.
Tom Noyes, author of the mobile, payments and advertising blog, FinVentures, predicts, "Retailer friendly value propositions (Square, Levelup, Fishbowl, Google, Facebook, etc.) will get traction"
3) Micro Will Gain Weight
Mobile transactions have been dominated by micro-payment transactions for digital goods.
But with the death of premium SMS and the non-carrier commerce world getting into the game, we will see (1) the average mobile transaction size increase due to mobile payments having a more balanced mix of digital, services, and physical goods and (2) U.S. wireless carriers, like many of their brethren internationally, will begin to accept certain “service” payments such as train, bus, and taxi.
The carriers need this type of higher margin revenue to pay for their massive infrastructure costs for 4G/LTE.
4) Mobile money interoperability will become a reality in some markets
There has been much talk about the benefits of interoperability in mobile money, but not a great deal of action as yet. However there was a recent announcement on the launch of mVisa in Rwanda, where customers will be able to use shared agent networks of mobile money providers. This is a very interesting project as Visa has the potential to bring years of experience in developing rules and regulations for interoperability as well as technology solutions.
The industry should take a close look at how this program develops, as there will be many lessons to be learnt, particularly on commercial models for interoperability.
5) Mobile Commerce will Continue to Rise - Smartphones will be driving force
According to comScore’s Digital Wallet Sneak Peek, though PC/Laptop will still be used primarily for Mobile wallets in 2013, smartphones are not far behind. The trend will continue and smartphones might surpass the PC/Laptop in number of mobile wallet usage soon.
So these are our predictions for 2013 in the world of mobile payments. We would be pleased to hear your
predictions as well
At TechAhead, we have helped many clients incorporate mobile payments, be it through SMS, Web/WAP based, NFC etc. Mobile
payments can open another channel of revenue for most businesses. If you are a business, we can help you in this. Write to us at [email protected] for a FREE 30-minute no obligation consultation with our mobile app experts ($200
Value).
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