CellPhone Wallets Come to America

The following article I read this morning talks about a "new" technology that American consumers will soon be able to add to their phone technology.

You can access it here at http://tinyurl.com/KeitaiWallets or read it at the end of my introduction.

A sticker sticks to the back of the cellphones and then it becomes an e-wallet. If you swipe the phone across a reader you can make payments instead of pulling out credit/debit cards and making payments that way.

This does have massive potential considering the fact that everyone seems to always have their hands on their "handheld" these days. They are either holding them, reading them, listening to them, or watching them. They stand in line fondling them. They play with them continuously at Starbucks, and other places. Everyone's got their hands on their things these days.

So, being able to whip their thing out and make a payment is, well, rather ... handy.

The problem with the system below, as I see, is that North American retailers, etc. are going to get a LOT of consumer info that consumers may not want to give up. Here in Japan, privacy (gone wild) is the watchword of the day and nobody wants to give away anything that they perceive belongs to them. And that includes their personal information.

The other thing is that... well... this new technology means that you need to stick a lovely sticker on the back of your gorgeous, shiny (or matte)-finished iPhone, or Android and that, to me, isn't so cool. To give the entrepreneur his fair due, perhaps this sticker goes on the underside of the battery cover of the phone where it would be invisible. That would be better.

So for North Americans who are used to paying with credit/debit cards and not cash, this new kind of easy payment, could be a great new technology.

It just strikes me as funny that entrepreneurs are wanting to add this function to the current cell phones now, because the Japanese phones have had this extremely convenient system BUILT INTO THE PHONES for about 10 years now. The world tends to ridicule the Japanese cell phones (keitai) as being "too full of gimmicky functions" that people don't need. Well, here's another "gimmick" we've had for the past 10 years that North America may finally find value in incorporating into their phones.

Here are a few examples of how handy this function really is:

We can go through security at airports with it, and our plane tickets are right inside the phone; we just touch our phone to a pad, and it reads the e-tickets inside (boarding pass included). We can use it to go through the turnstiles in the train stations and have our monthly train passes right inside the phone. We can touch our way on and off buses, dine in restaurants, purchase from drugstores, retail shops, and just about anywhere. It really is an extremely convenient function in a world where e-Money is trading like wildfire.

In Japan you can charge your phone with as much money as you want. When it runs out, just charge it up at any station, convenience store or myriad of other location and there you go. Touch it to a reader, add cash to a machine and you are good to go. Or if you really want to stay away from cash you can have it linked to your credit card (or your bank account) and set an automatic charge so you never have to feel embarrassed when you touch the reader and it says, "insufficient funds", if that is your desire.

The thing I like about the J-system is that it is anonymous; we don't give our shopping habits away to the vendors.

For those of you who love technology, you may just find this "new" add on third party function to be very very convenient. After all, people rarely leave home without their cell phone these days; it has become a lifeline necessity for everyone around the world.

When it finally comes available in locations near you, if you can get over the fact that you are giving away your personal shopping habits, I highly recommend you give this "new" technology a try. You may just find you can't take your hands off your thing!

I love you!
Cam

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Companies Get Their Bling On
Nov 12, 2010

Consumers who don’t want the hassle of pulling out their wallets to pay for goods and services can increasingly use their mobile phones for the transactions. And one company is aiming to make the experience interactive—and more valuable to merchant and customer.

Bling Nation, based in Palo Alto, California, and run by serial international entrepreneur Wenceslao Casares, goes beyond other early adapters of mobile payment platforms to leverage the personal relationships small to large vendors have with their clients.

Bling Nation allows businesses to connect with their social media network at the point of sale, awarding loyalty rewards, discounts, and personalized offers to consumers via the company’s BlingTag. The tag, a microchip sticker that adheres to any phone, smart or otherwise, supports real-time mobile payments with a tap.

It's a partner of PayPal and backed by nearly $30 million from private equity firms Lightspeed Venture Partners, based in Silicon Valley; Balderton Capital based in London, CampVentures in Los Altos, California, and MECK, Ltd., in Santiago, Chile.

How is that different than other mobile payment platforms? “Merchants who created online presence on social media networks had access to their fans, but couldn’t recognize them when those people walked into the store,” says Casares. “With the BlingTag, they see who the customer is, the person’s preferences, and likes, all gathered with the information they freely provided on their Facebook profiles.”

Casares says he knew his company had to offer value beside the ease of transaction. “When you think of swiping or tapping a credit card, that’s a seamless and pleasant transaction. But for many people, taking out their phones is even easier than reaching for their wallets.”

Merchants get real-time stats including the customer’s average purchase, frequency of visits, and even preferred days of visits, tools they can use to create targeted and specialized offers for their customers. Consumers benefit too. At the point of sale they get a text confirming the purchase, their PayPal account balance, and relevant coupons without the hassle of having to download, print, and physically bring them to the store.

Bling Nation charges vendors a flat 1.5 percent transaction fee along with a monthly membership of $40 to $70 depending on services provided. The fees involved amount to approximately half of what Visa and MasterCard charge merchants, and about one-quarter of what American Express takes. The point-of-sale machines are provided free to businesses as part of the package.

But what happens to a consumer’s account if he or she loses the phone? “Studies show that people who lose their phone report it within two hours, versus 48 hours for a stolen wallet,” Casares says. As soon as the device is reported lost or stolen, the Bling Nation tag is deactivated and the funds are frozen. Merchants also require a PIN at the time of transaction as an added layer of security.

The service rolled out in the Bay area two weeks ago and Casares plans a nationwide expansion in early 2011, fueled by partnerships with yet unnamed bix-box retailers. Missing the lucrative holiday season is not something that Bling Nation is happy about, but Casares wants to take the time to learn from the Bay area launch to bring a more comprehensive system to the entire U.S. Doing so by the holidays wasn’t feasible.

Casares isn’t aiming to eliminate cash payments.

“We didn’t get rid of cash when checks came out and we didn’t eliminate cash when credit cards came out. With innovation in the payment space we’ve given consumers more options to choose from, and the ease of mobile transactions is likely to push that platform to preferred method sooner rather than later,” he says.