Last week’s announcement of Visa’s strategic investment in Square set off a wave of news reports and blog posts about its implications for Visa, Square and the rest of the ecosystem. Most of the discussion was focused on the how much Visa invested (they say...
Google has signaled that it will do two things no one else in the payments ecosystem has done or even talked about: make a business case for merchants and consumers around NFC and maybe even put some real money behind it. Google has obviously made...
Google and Apple made news last week when they announced their respective plans to help publishers monetize their content. Less than 24 hours after Cupid worked his magic on Valentine’s Day, Apple began a subscription payment service that lets customers pay for content that magazine...
Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but the weeklong “Loves Me” or “Loves Me Not” series on PYMNTS.com is just beginning. The fourth stop for the Market Platform Dynamics team is ‘Rewards’: loves me or loves me not? Karen Webster: Loves Me The card industry...
Reader Warning: My usually sunny demeanor has been replaced by a little crankiness, given an unfortunate, unintended consequence of the snow and ice that has plagued Boston for what seems like months now. Last Tuesday, I slipped on the ice and broke my right wrist....
Sidelining the sweets? Forgoing the french fries? There are some New Year’s resolutions worth keeping this year and continuing the Resolution Series, Karen Webster shares her 2011 payments New Year’s resolutions. I will focus on innovation that can be ignited and return a profit (in...
On the 11th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me … 100 Facebook credits and told me I could go crazy buying virtual stuff for my farm on Farmville. Frankly, it was not what I expected to receive from my true love. I’m...
On this seventh day of Christmas, are you, too, having trouble finding those elusive seven swans a-swimmin’? Well, it just might be that one of the thousands of online deal and/or group buying sites might have just what you are looking for at a price...
Our long-held view that contactless cards were going to fizzle has really gone mainstream. Take a look at Randall Stross’ piece in yesterday’s Sunday New York Times. His piece, “Maybe Your Old Card is Smart Enough” makes the point that those [contactless smart cards] emperors...