The mobile money industry is expected to grow from $13.8 billion in 2013 to $278.9 billion by 2018, according to a study released this month by global research group MarketsandMarkets, which estimates there will be about 5.3 billion mobile phones worldwide this year.
Samsung and Visa Make a Move
On the same day, Visa unveiled a global alliance with smartphone leader Samsung (IW 1000/25) to let people make payments with NFC-equipped Samsung smartphones.
Under the deal, Samsung will equip the next generation of its mobile devices with Visa payment technology, including by pre-loading Visa's contactless payment system -- Visa payWave -- in its mobiles with a mini-program known as an applet.
Samsung will let banks send payment account information over the airwaves to a secure microchip embedded in its devices. Banks in turn will use a secure system relying on Visa's so-called Mobile Provisioning Service and Samsung's digital key management system.
Visa said the deal had the potential to "significantly accelerate" the availability of mobile payments globally, noting a forecast by ABI Research that 1.95 billion NFC-enabled devices will ship in 2017.
But some in the industry are skeptical.
"I think NFC is just a technology in search of a problem to fix that does not exist because it is really easy to pay in the store," the president of eBay subsidiary PayPal, David Marcus, told journalists at the congress.
Five days before the World Mobile Congress, PayPal announced it was expanding its move into MasterCard and Visa's territory.
Marcus showcased a new PayPal device, which lets cash-based businesses accept PIN-number based "smart" debit and credit cards.
Merchants will be able to download a Paypal Here application for their Android or iPhone smartphone and then pair the handset with the new device, which they have to buy. The device can accept secure payments and issue receipts. For each transaction, whether by credit card, debit card or PayPal account, PayPal receives a "small fee".
Similar PayPal technology is already being used in the United States for payment cards that are swiped, but it was unable to handle cards with embedded microchips and PIN numbers.
- Emmanuelle Trecolle, AFP
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
