Afrimarket targeting Cameroon for 2014 launch

Comments "Afrimarket is a very promising startup on the remittance market, focusing on Gift Card for the beneficiary side. With its recent funding, Afrimarket is now a good position to expand its service all across Africa.

Extract "Mobile money remittance service Afrimarket will expand its operations to Cameroon as part of its plan to cover the African diaspora with its affordable transcontinental solution.
Launched in June 2013, Afrimarket allows people in Europe to send money to their contacts in West African countries such as the Ivory Coast, Senegal and Benin."

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Global mobile money transfer to top $10 billion in 2013

Comments "Going beyond top up is the real challenge for Telcos... Cash remittance is another job and they need time to ajust their process to regulatory constraints. Banks should take advantage of it!»

Extract "The value of international money transfers made via mobile devices this year will exceed $10 billion for the first time, according to Juniper Research. However, the cost and complexity of regulating cash transfer has led many telecom providers to focus exclusively on airtime top ups, the research firm reported."

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Stockholm’s Homeless Accept Cards as Cash No Longer King

Comments "Even in a cashless society, everyone has to find a way to do its own business....it seems less convenient to use a plastic card to buy a newspaper. But if there is no other choice, it has be to tried.."

Extrait "Stockholm’s homeless magazine vendors no longer need to ask if you can spare any krona. They take cards. In the most cashless society on the planet, the sellers of Situation Stockholm, a culture magazine sold by homeless people, were last month equipped with card readers to accept donations from fellow Swedes. The move marks a world first, according to their employer. "

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PayPal working with Blackhawk to add gift cards to digital wallets

Comments "It really make sense to match digital wallets and gift cards programs. Paypal is once again showing the way to its competitors. Who will follow soon ?"

Extract "The prepaid payment provider Blackhawk Network is working with PayPal to bring gift cards to the digital wallet. The collaboration will include Blackhawk's broad range of physical gift cards and e-gifts, many from leading brands, Blackhawk said in a news release."

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Apple has killed NFC. Next up: an Amex purchase?

Comments "Will it be the next move ? This would be an amazing and powerfull stategy as described in this article. But the two company do not have the same DNA..."

Extract "With the release of the iPhone 5S and 5C, we saw the death of mobile payment as we know it, and the hundreds of thousands of NFC-enabled retailers across the world are now scratching their heads about what to do next.
But why has Apple been so violently opposed to the NFC standard that the rest of the payments industry has adopted?"

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Dunn Bros Coffee caffeinates loyalty with mobile payments app

Commentaire "Coffee and QRcode ? Sounds like Starbuks to me. Good idea if it meets the same success."

Extract "Specialty coffee chain Dunn Bros is providing faster, easier payment and loyalty experiences to its on-the-go customers via a new mobile application.
The mobile payments and loyalty app is being rolled out to all of the Minneapolis, MN-based chain’s 80 local locations. For Dunn Bros franchisees, the app enables them to build loyalty by giving users $3 of credit for every $50 they spend, for example."

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Paiement en ligne : redistribution des cartes

Commentaires "Quittons un peu le domaine du paiement pour celui non moins interessant du e-commerce, de plus en plus mobile lui aussi. Panorama des acteurs"

Extrait "Un nouveau site marchand se crée toutes les demi-heures ! Dans la foulée, le paiement devient multiforme, correspondant à des usages divers et variés... Ce qui donne lieu à de nombreuses solutions alternatives à la simple transaction par carte bancaire. Panorama"

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Firms in Brazil to launch new mobile payment services

Comments "It will be a hudge challenge to deploy an NFC program in a country surch as Brasil. To roll out NFC Merchand equipements is a challenge in itself."


Extract "Claro SA, America Movil’s Brazilian wireless unit and the Brazil-based Bradesco, one of the largest banks in Latin America, announced yesterday that they will launch two new mobile payment services next year.
The solutions result from a joint venture the companies made in 2011 named MPO (Mobile Payment Operator).
Both products, a co-branded virtual wallet tied to a mobile line and a solution to enable transactions via NFC (near field communications) are in the initial development phase."

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P2P survey finds appetite for digital payments

Comments. "This survey is interesting because its helps to understand customer's needs in terms of use case. Helping customers to solve their day to day small issues with existing payment means is a good starting point for any mobile payment company"

Extract "While most person-to-person payments are made with cash or checks, a growing number of consumers would prefer a digital option, according to a recent survey. The survey, "How Americans Pay Each Other," conducted on behalf of the financial services technology solution provider Fiserv, queried more than 2,500 Americans and looked at P2P, or social payment"

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Google Glass offers hands-free payment opportunity

Comments "Not sure it is not too early to imagine this kind use case, but why not... But I do not see this adopt by the mass market..."

Extract "A number of companies are looking to develop apps for Google Glass, hoping the smart glasses will enable consumers to make faster payments in shops and restaurants."

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Kenya: Airtel Backs Draft Mobile Money Rules

Comments. "It's not surprising that Airtel is pushing CBK to adopt the cooperation between wallets in Kenya. The monopoly of m-pesa is subject of matter for a long time for CBK. Will this change in the near futur?"

Extract "AIRTEL has supported proposed regulations by the Central Bank of Kenya that seeks to open up mobile payment services for use by all providers.

CBK last week published the National Payment System Draft Regulations that among others recommend that e-money issuers shall utilise open systems capable of being accessed and operated by other payment systems in the country and internationally. The same shall apply to electronic retail transfers."

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Isis tempts consumers to adopt m-payments with Million Free Smoothie Giveaway

Comments. "Will smoothies catalyze mobile payments with ISIS? Interesting from a marketing point of view.."

Extract "Isis has announced it will give away 1 million free smoothies to customers paying via the Isis mobile wallet on their smartphones once the service, a joint venture between AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, rolls out across the US later this year."

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Wallets : le paiement de demain ?

Commentaires "Un éveil intéressant au porte monnaie électronique sur un site dédié aux commerçants et à la distribution. Les commerçants indépendants sont encore loin de réclamer un usage des wallets, mais la grande distribution et les chaines avancent petit à petit sur le sujet..."

Extrait "La profusion apparait d’autant plus grande que l’on met derrière le même terme une grande diversité de solutions. Cela va du simple porte monnaie électronique, comme S-Money, qui permet de stocker un peu d’argent pour par exemple régler le livreur de pizza ou faire le complément d’un titre restaurant, au portefeuille multiservices intégrant paiement, transport, fidélité, couponing…"

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Voir également : Digital, mobile, cross canal : le paiement dans cette nouvelle donne ici

Is P2P Square's Killer App?

Comments "As the writer of this article, I am wondering where is the business plan of Square with this P2P...But M. Dorsey surely have its own idea about it. Nevertheless it will be interesting to see if Square is able to demonstrate there is a way to compete with Paypal..."

Extract "Fresh on the heals of PayPal's acquisition of Braintree (and Venmo along with it), the long anticipated PayPal-killer from Square finally launched this week: Square Cash. Rumored for months now, Square Cash is pretty much exactly what people expected - a super easy way to transfer money from person to person. No fees. No complicated ACH deposit checks. No two-step funding process. Just cash from your Visa or Mastercard branded debit card to someone else's. And not launched at the leading event for industry professionals focused on professional (Money2020), but on a random Tuesday evening. Boom."

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Orange reveals progress with NFC & mobile money services

Comments ."Orange is talking about the success of its news cross border service towards Africa. But do not communicate any figures..."

Extract "Mobile operator Orange talked up growth in both its European NFC deployments as well as its Orange Money service targeting users in the Middle East and Africa"

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