- December 20, 2010
- Digital Payments, Global Payments Knowledge
- No Comments
- ecommerce, innovation, Mobile Banking, P2P, payments, PayPal, platforms, smartphone
Mobile Banking/Payments stories are the core of the industry news this month
Mobile Banking/Payments stories are the core of the industry news this month, which perhaps is a good omen for 2011’s activities. Mobile Banking/Payments in our opinion has now gone from the Innovation Stage through to Established, meaning that it will continue to grow and remain, and one day it will become Mainstream within the payments ecosystem.
The growth of the mobile channel and emergence of extensive payments systems from major ecommerce players, like PayPal, are set to disrupt the traditional payments ecosystem forever. The ripples will be seen in payments systems over the next decade at least. In the Mobile Banking/Mobile Payments/Mobile Commerce space there are still many questions around models, players, geographical variations etc that all need answers and time to evolve, so the final shape remains vague for now.
The one unique characteristic about Mobile Banking/Payments is that consumer hunger for the service is contributing significantly to drive momentum. It doesnât matter whether demand is in evolving countries where people implement P2P payments with SMS or whether it is the more technically saturated countries who just love those smartphone applications. Consumers, rather than product managers, are for the first time in the payments space driving end customer product definition.
If the payments industry follows the smartphone open application precedent, and as PayPal have already introduced in ecommerce their open PayPal X platforms, then payment applications/products will be not only be defined by consumers but also potentially built by consumers – an exciting prospect!
Enjoy the festive season and best wishes from everyone at PayX.