Around the Net
Google Moves Into Mobile Payment Space
- The Wall Street Journal, Monday, March 28, 2011 12 PM
With the help of MasterCard and Citigroup, Google is reportedly moving into the white-hot mobile payments space. "The Internet giant is aiming to make mobile payments easier in a bid to boost its advertising business," The Wall Street Journal reports. According to sources, "The planned payment system would allow Google to offer retailers more data about their customers and help them target ads and discount offers to mobile-device users near their stores."
Under the headline, "Google's Mobile Payments Could Make Its Ad Business Stronger," Business Insider writes: "Google would pitch local businesses on offering discounts and ads to people using Google's mobile payment applications." Likewise, Google "hopes it can reach new audiences via its mobile platform, expanding its advertising business," writes The Next Web.
"The notion that Google would be able connect the dots between online ads and the point of sale and deliver all that information back to marketers would be a dream come true for many," Search Engine Land writes. "There might even be a capacity to track individual search keywords (or display ad creative) all the way to purchases at the point of sale ... This would be a kind of ‘Holy Grail' of analytics."
The WSJ story follows a similar report by Bloomberg, which suggested that Google is planning to pay for "thousands" of installations of near-field communication systems around New York City and San Francisco. As The Hill points out, experts tell the WSJ that the new technology is actually more secure than the magnetic stripe on the back of credit cards, "though the prospect of targeted ads and consumer information shared with retailers will likely raise privacy concerns on Capitol Hill."
With or without Google, the market for mobile payments is expected to grow to $618 billion by 2016, reports VentureBeat, citing a recent report by consulting firm Edgar, Dunn & Co., and sponsored by MasterCard.
