Around the Net
McDonald's Placed Bet on NFC for Payments
- Mashable, Tuesday, September 16, 2014 11:28 AM
Along with the list of expected partners for Apple Pay this week was a bit of a surprise: McDonald's. How did the Golden Arches, not an outfit known for its association with cutting-edge technology and gadgets, get on Tim Cook's radar? It turns out the partnership was the fruit of a year-long effort that began with the hiring of Amazon exec Atif Rafiq last October. Rafiq, the SVP and global digital officer at McDonald's, calls himself "Employee No. 1 for McDigital" at the fast-food chain. He oversees a unit that now includes two-dozen execs from PayPal, Yahoo, Tesco and Ticketmaster, among other companies. In June, the company also opened a San Francisco office on Market St. right near Yelp's headquarters. That proximity was integral to the Apple deal, Rafiq says.
