Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Promising Start Up To Take Advantage To The M-Payment hype

A lot of hope is based on m-payment in Western countries. Even though in Asia (both Japan and South Korea) mobile payment has been a reality for years, in Europe and the US, it is struggling to settle. Why? Because a lot of actors are eager to benefit from this new business:
  • Mobile network companies, which provides the network needed to permit mobile transactions.
  • Banks, which are experts in finance transaction and dealing with large amount of transactions.
  • Mobile devices manufacturer. The next Iphone is expected to have a technology which will enable mobile payment. Also, we all know that Google is working also on M payment with Android.
  • Retailers, which have strong interests in the level of commissions they may have to pay.
    Credit card company like Visa, which business model would go in limbo in case they don’t enter the market.
  • Start ups, which are more flexible and that own the technology.

This is the case of a start up called Jumio. Jumio might be a young company, but its staff has very impressive resumes. Former executives of Google and Amazon are running the operations.

I believe Jumio needs to set partnerships with financial institutions to make m payment real.

It remains unknown which of these actors will win the market, but there is one main question which needs to be asked if we want to see m payment blossoming: What is the advantage for customers? A lot needs to be done to educate customers.

Jumio from Jumio Inc. on Vimeo.



What do you think about it?