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Interest surrounding Near Field Communications for m-commerce and m-payments continues unabated, with further trials being conducted around the world. Financial transactions via mobile phones are set to rise substantially in the coming years as banks and mobile operators continue to work together. Focus has also turned to the developing markets, where mobile phones are being viewed as an opportunity to reach the masses that would not otherwise use m-payment or m-banking services.

M-commerce (mobile e-commerce) incorporates a range of mobile-driven applications, including payments for parking and theatre tickets (m-payments) to mobile banking (m-banking). M-commerce is a broad field incorporating a large variety of services and business models and  is potentially important for a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, IT, finance, retail and the media, as well as for end-users. It will work best in those areas where it can emphasise the core virtue of mobile networks – convenience.

Players are lured into entering the mobile commerce market by the huge revenue opportunities and the potential for customer acquisition and retention, but those offering applications must be aware that alternatives exist at all points. Although a range of niche market applications will be successful in many markets, there is currently a lot of confusion and uncertainty about what will be successful and who will make money from particular mobile e-commerce applications.

For a number of years we have been saying that one of the key problems regarding mobile content is that the underlying business model is flawed.

Of course, mobile infrastructure is just another excellent avenue for entrepreneurs to market and distribute certain products and services that suit this technology and the market demographics linked to it. So, in principle, there is nothing wrong with mobile data as an infrastructure alternative for new services. However, like any other infrastructure, it has to be available at low cost; otherwise the business models to sell and market such products won’t work.

Japan and Korea were one of the first to offer low-cost models to content providers, and the mobile content market is flourishing in those markets. Most of the proceeds flow to the content providers yet, in the rest of the world, the mobile operators are adamant that they want to have a much larger share of the spoils. Japanese consumers spend over $800 million each year using their mobiles for contactless payments, including prepaid travel tickets. This can be partly attributed to the success of Sony’s FeliCa contactless payments standard that has been adopted by banks and mobile phones companies.

Over the last couple of years we have finally seen some new models emerging around the world, especially regarding the processing of micro payments. Some of these initiatives include:

• Subscription based services – users are charged a regular fee for unlimited access to products;
• Consolidation of bills – customers’ m-transactions are integrated into their usual mobile bill;
• Co-ordination of merchant fees – merchant charges are grouped together as a single transaction;
• Direct debit – charges are taken directly from a user’s bank account upon authorisation.

It is now becoming inevitable that mobile handsets will be used to conduct financial transactions and purchases, and developments in NFC are enabling a revival in this market.

Focus has also turned to the developing markets, where mobile phones are being viewed as an opportunity to reach the masses that would not otherwise use m-payment or m-banking services.

The Setting Up Your Winning Mobile Payments Projects event hosted by SymphonyGlobal and running in Kuala Lumpur from March 3 will address best practices to plan pilots for mobile contactless payment, ticketing and value-added-services and to scale up from pilots to real, commercial services.

This event also includes workshops such as Understanding the Banking World and Setting Up Your Winning Mobile Payments Projects .

For more information see –  Setting Up Your Winning Mobile Payments Projects

For more information on BuddeComm research see –

Global – Mobile Data – M-Commerce & M-Payments

Global – Mobile Data – Telemetry & RFID

Technology – Wireless – Broadband 1 – RFID, Near Field and 802-15 ZigBee

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St George Bank launched a mobile banking application in 2009 that has already been used by more than 60,000 of their customers who have logged on 750,000 times.

Users can check their account balances and how much interest they have accrued, transfer money between accounts, make payments through BPAY and view scheduled payments. The iPhone mobile banking application has been used for more than 240,000 transactions to date.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has more than 100,000 iPhone customers using its mobile banking application and recorded 600,000 log-ins during December.

Westpac Banking Corp launched a branch and ATM locator application for the iPhone and has since integrated with Google Maps to show where the nearest facility is located.

Westpac launched a mobile banking application for viewing account balances, transferring money between personal accounts and viewing recent transaction.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has iPhone applications for its Netbank retail banking service and CommSec retail stock trading.

See also:

Australia – Mobile Data – M-Commerce

Australia – Mobile Media – Premium Rate SMS

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It is always good to see competition in a market that is so dominated by one player and we do get a lot of very strong single application players, which could easily lead to domination, which then eventually can lead to a lack of competition and further innovation. While Oztion still only has a small part of the market, it is competition nevertheless.

Launched in January 2005, OZtion has established itself as the second largest online auction service in Australia, with 454,962 members and over 500,000 items for sale in January 2010.

Jumbuck Entertainment Ltd acquired OZtion in June 2008, with a strategy to expand the online auction site’s community and services. Their no fee for listing items and a lower sales commission than eBay means increased profits for sellers. Sellers can also run a low cost fully branded vShop (fully branded virtual shop) for $5 per month.

The company also launched CarBuddy.com.au, which provides dealers and private sellers with a car classifieds website service in Australia. CarBuddy provides a place to sell, buy, value, research and chat about cars.

Interesting items being auctioned

• Soul in a jar
• Box full of random ex-boyfriend stuff
• Haunted suitcase
• A girl that auctioned herself off for Valentines Day
• Sneakers from one of the Big Brother celebrities raising money for Beyond Blue
• A photo with a ghost

For further information see also:

Australia – Mobile Media – Premium Rate SMS

Australia – Digital Economy – E-commerce – Trends & Statistics

Australia – Digital Economy – E-Commerce and Advertising

Australia – Mobile Media – Products and Services

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