Payment Observer

The Latest News, Industry Insights and Research Findings on Global Payment Markets

21Aug/12

Payment News – August 21, 2012: iZettle, PayPal, Barclays Pingit

By Martin Schuppelius

Payment Observer featured company can be found here at this website.

iZettle Launches Mobile Payment App for Android

iZettle is now rolling out the commercial version of its mobile payment app for Android devices in Sweden. iZettle currently supports the Samsung Galaxy S II, S III and Note models, and is working to support more Android devices in the future. Read more…

McDonald’s Tests Mobile Payments via PayPal in France

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Barclays to Launch Mobile Payment Service Pingit in Kenya

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31Jul/12

European Square Rival iZettle Forced to Stop Accepting VISA in Denmark, Finland and Norway

By Martin Schuppelius

Find a small business friendly solution provider that we see as a highly rated service provider.

iZettle has to stop processing Visa card payments in Denmark, Finland and Norway where it currently trials its mobile card payment service. The company has released a statement on its official blog, announcing that Visa Europe is forcing iZettle to stop accepting Visa payments on August 1. iZettle will continue to accept MasterCard and AmEx in those countries.

Sweden-based iZettle provides a mobile payment service that enables merchants to accept credit card payments using an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. The company is often referred as the European version of (more…)

24Jul/12

Payment News – July 24, 2012: Adyen, iZettle, NFC Mobile Payment Market

By Martin Schuppelius

Payment Observer featured company can be found here at this website.

Adyen Report: iPad is the Market Leader in Mobile Payments

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iZettle Brings Mobile Card Payment to Android

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iZettle for Android

NFC Mobile Payment Market to Reach $180B by 2017

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18Jun/12

Payment News – June 18, 2012: GlobalCollect, BOKU, iZettle, Square

By Martin Schuppelius

Need a cash or credit card processing solution for your business? Payment Observer has more details you can learn by visiting their website.

GlobalCollect Integrates Mobile Payment Service BOKU

BOKU customers can pay for online purchases by entering their mobile phone number and confirm via a SMS message. They will be billed directly via their mobile provider. The partnership shows that carrier billing has become a mainstream payment method for all kinds of digital goods and services.

iZettle Secures €25M, Eyes International Growth

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Square Now Processes $6B in Payments, Surpasses 2M Users

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13Jun/12

Payment News – June 13, 2012: iZettle API, Lemon Mobile Wallet

By Gary Merrett

Payment Observer has details on multiple companies that provide funding, atm, and credit card processing services. Get more information and details here.

New Payment API Enables Developers to Accept Payments via iZettle

European mobile payment startup here.

Mobile Money Management App Lemon Raises $8M, Starts Mobile Wallet Service

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29May/12

Mobile POS: The Challengers

By Martin Schuppelius

Payment Observer featured company can be found here at this website.

Mobile point of sale solutions that allow retail merchants to accept card payments with a smartphone or tablet continue to be a hot topic. Mobile POS services make accepting card payments easier and cheaper, a big advantage especially for small and medium sized companies. See our The Fight for the Mobile Point of Sale article where we provided an introduction to the existing mobile POS services.

So far Jack Dorsey’s Square is the leader when it comes to mobile POS transaction in the U.S. But the competition is heating up. Now even big payment companies start similar services while startups launch Square-like mobile payment products all around the world.

Big payment companies take on the mobile POS market

VeriFone SAIL mobile card reader

NFC-based payments. VeriFone charges a 2.7% for swiped transaction (1.95% with a $9.95/m Pro plan).

Mobile POS outside of the United States

Unfortunately Square is only available to customers in the United States so far. Sweden-based iZettle proved that the concept can be very successful implemented in Europe and over the last weeks some interesting services launched outside the U.S.:

  • Payment processor Sage Pay has started beta testing of Sage Pay Mobile in the UK. Sage Pay Mobile uses a small terminal that connectes via Bluetooth with the merchants smartphone to process card based payments.
  • Another UK-based mobile payment service is Mpowa. The Square-like service will launch soon in the UK and then expand to other parts of Europe and North America.
  • Streetpay by Masterpayment will be the first mobile POS service to launch in Germany. The Payment service provider plans to start the service in mid-June this year.
  • payleven has no monthly fees and will include a free card reader. Further details remain unclear.
16May/12

Payment News – May 16, 2012: iZettle, Ogone, PayPal, PayPass Wallet

By Martin Schuppelius

Need a cash or credit card processing solution for your business? Payment Observer has more details you can learn by visiting their website.

Mobile Payment: iZettle Launches Mobile Card Reader in the UK

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Mobile Payment: MasterCard partners with Ogone to Bring PayPass Wallet to Europe

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PayPal is Pushing Into Physical Stores: More Retailers to Adopt PayPal In-Store Payments

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3May/12

The Fight for the Mobile Point of Sale

By Martin Schuppelius

Payment Observer featured company can be found here at this website.

The latest mobile point of sale (POS) payment solutions allow retail merchants to accept credit card or debit card payments directly via their smartphone or tablet. These services enable small business owners and individuals to process card payments without buying expensive additional hardware.

Here is how those mobile POS services work: At the time of a purchase, the customer’s credit card is swiped by a small reader that is attached to the mobile device of the merchant. The signature is collected directly on the screen of the mobile device.

There are several companies fighting for the mobile POS – most recently online payment veteran PayPal presented its own mobile POS solution PayPal Here.

The table below provides a brief overview on the existing mobile POS solutions:

click to enlarge

11Apr/12

Innovative Payment Companies: iZettle – Mobile Card Processing the Swedish Way

By Martin Schuppelius

Payment Observer has details on multiple companies that provide funding, atm, and credit card processing services. Get more information and details here.

iZettle provides a mobile payment service that allows businesses and individuals to accept credit and debit card payments using their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

The company was founded in April 2010 by Jacob de Geer and Magnus Nilsson and recently received €8.2 million in funding led by Index Ventures.

Availability

Since its launch in Sweden last summer, iZettle has attracted 25,000 active users and has grown the point of sale market in Sweden by roughly 15%. The service is also available in Denmark, Finland and Norway with more to come in 2012.

How it works

PayPal Here iZettle is also EMV (Europay, MasterCard and VISA) approved and supports chip-enabled cards, which are very popular in Europe.

Pricing

iZettle has no set up fee or monthly fee. For each transaction iZettle charges 2.75% of the transaction volume plus €0.15 (including bank fees).

In a nutshell

iZettle provides an innovative solution for accepting credit and debit cards on the go. Unfortunately the service is only available in the Nordics so far.

Check out the video to see how iZettle works:

7Mar/12

Mobile World Congress 2012 Roundup: Mobile Payment Trends

By Martin Schuppelius

Payment Observer featured company can be found here at this website.

Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. The congress is organized by the GSM Association (GSMA), the global industry association of mobile operators and related companies. It is not just about presenting the latest mobile devices; it is also about showing the future of mobile technology.

Mobile Payment

BOKU Accounts service allows subscribers to make payments online, in-app, and in-store anywhere MasterCard is accepted. At the same time Facebook is starting to cut out mobile payment providers of the transaction cycle. Facebook’s CTO Bret Taylor announced during his MWC Keynote that Facebook is partnering with major mobile network operators (including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Orange and Telefónica) and will provide its own carrier billing solution. At present Facebook uses third party providers such as BOKU or Zong to process mobile payments.

Traditional financial service companies are going mobile:

  • Visa and Vodafone announced at the conference to join forces and develop a mobile payment platform based on Visa prepaid accounts.
  • Money transfer giant Western Union (in cooperation with mobile operator WIND) is going to launch a mobile money transfer service in Italy.

Innovative mobile payment services presented their latest developments:

  • iZettle’s mobile payment solution that allows users to accept card payments using their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch gains traction and is expanding into tree new countries.
  • Mobile payment start-up boxPAY launched and presented an in-app payment service for Google’s Android platform.

Near Field Communication

recently published a set of industry specifications to enable the development of secure and ubiquitous mobile NFC services.

  • Smartcard and digital security companies such as Giesecke & Devrient showcased their NFC-services at the MWC.
  • The Logic Group and ViVOtech announced to work together to enable customers to shop via their NFC-enabled smartphones.
  • Mobile payment joint venture ISIS has teamed-up with BarclayCard, Capital One, and Chase.