Posts by Ed Kountz from August 22, 2008

Ed Kountz | August 22, 2008, 07:29 AM
More mobile...FDC's GoTag study and a Visa U.S. Update

First Data believes that contactless stickers—its so-called-GO-Tags—will be a game-changer in the race to mobile proximity payments. Go-Tags are flexible RF antennae, linked to a prepaid account, designed to be affixed to consumers’ cellphones. If successful, the tags will help to jump-start mobile proximity payments, and FDC has just rolled out a new study suggesting that consumer interest in the concept is high.

LINK

At least regarding the interest piece--specifically, whether interest and understanding are high enough to support critical mass in the near future--I disagree that we're there yet. As spelled out in recent research, JupiterResearch believes it will still take several years for m-prox to take off, esp. in the U.S. Further, we believe that because payment stickers enable payments…but don’t directly link into the ecosystem of downloadable marketing offers and other POS discover that would be capable with NFC phones, that the addressable market will be slower to take off than FDC expects. Still, it’s a step worth watching. Consumer marketing and education around the value proposition will be essential, and we believe will encourage consumer behavior over the next few years, rather than something more rapid.

Particularly given that interest around the mobile ecosystem continues to percolate. Chase and Visa recently announced a consumer marketing pilot in the Phoenix area in which Chase credit and debit customers can have targeted, personal offers from more than 50 participating merchants sent to their mobile devices. And on a separate note, Visa has announced it is working with PNC Bank, SunTrust Bank, U.S. Bank, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo in the United States, and Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, and Vancity to launch a 2000 consumer pilot testing the delivery of real-time notification alerts on Visa accounts. The alerts will be delivered via email and/ or SMS. Real-time account alerts provide additional control to tech-savvy account holders, and will be an important element of the mobile ecosystem as payments demand develops. NFC phones remain a rarity…and little known by US consumers…but opportunities to use mobile to deepen the relationship with consumers do already exist.

More on this in upcoming Jupiter research, and in research from our new corporate comrades at Forrester. It's good to be a part of an expanded corporate team, and look for exciting announcements and updates on the acquisition as the year progresses.