Visa's one giant leap for mobile micropay- or is it?
At CTIA today, Visa USA President and CEO John Philip Coghlan announced a number of alliances with mobile content providers that would allow micropayments for mobile commerce and content.
No marketer should attempt to forge those alliances without research. Not to worry, because Coghland came to the podium with some demographics:
- Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed expressed interest in getting a phone with a payment application when shown what a payment-enabled phone might look like.
- Nearly 90 percent of those who were interested in mobile payment said they would pay extra for a phone with this feature.
- Sixty-four percent of consumers in the survey aged 18-42 said they would consider switching mobile carriers from one that does not offer mobile payment capabilities to one that does, assuming they could keep their phone number.
- Fifty-eight percent of the same age group said they would consider switching financial institutions to gain access to mobile payment services.
- By a ratio of five to one, consumers would prefer mobile purchases to pass through a credit or debit card network and appear on their card statement instead of appearing on their wireless bill.
Take those numbers as you may. I have this theory that surveys about emerging applications are slanted toward those who are interested enough in using them to even agree to participate. But still, the level of interest in mobile payments should not be discounted.
I guess you could say why Coghlan announced that the following vendors are ready to play with Visa in the micropayments space:
dotMobi - Visa announced a strategic investment in dotMobi, a consortium of wireless industry leaders that is pioneering the use of the ".mobi" domain address and is enabling the integration of enhanced mobile commerce into the mobile Internet experience for consumers.
Ecrio -Visa announced a strategic alliance and investment in Ecrio, a leading provider of software for mobile phones on 3G networks; Ecrio enables the redemption of barcode-enabled coupons and tickets from mobile devices at existing point of sale (POS) systems.
VeriSign - A leading provider of digital infrastructure, VeriSign today announced it will support the Visa mobile platform, and will use its content delivery services to provide mobile offer management capabilities.
Visa is working with Qualcomm, a leading developer of advanced wireless technologies and data solutions, to help bring CDMA and WCDMA platforms to market that include NFC (Near Field Communications) and support the Visa mobile platform.
Kyocera Wireless is showcasing the platform on NFC-enabled, CDMA-based phones at CTIA.
Now will consumers buy this stuff? What do you think?