Virtual Currencies: Bust-Out Ahead? Witness the recent travails of the euro if you want proof of how hard it is for any new currency, even a physical currency backed by multiple governments, to attain and retain widespread usage and acceptance. The obstacles blocking the new breed of electronic currencies from …
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Virtual Currencies Not Yet Ready for Prime Time, Though Facebook Credits Could Be Close
The Internet, especially through online gaming and social networks, has spawned a number of new electronic currencies. Are any of these ready to make the leap into general usage, the way dollars and pounds and euros and yen are today? That was the fascinating question raised this week at a …
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Visa Gives a Push to Prepaid Cards If Visa Inc. could be personified as an illustrious 19th Century editor, he might be saying, “Go prepaid, young man.” The No. 1 payment card network’s interchange schedule effective Oct. 1, the day new federal debit card interchange price controls …
Read More »Strategies: Getting Beyond Square
By Jane Adler Rightly or wrongly, lots of investors are mesmerized by the high-profile startup Square. But it’s not the only newbie transforming the payments industry as venture-capital firms scramble to find the next big idea. Some startup companies get all the attention. The …
Read More »Buoyed by Gift Cards, Closed-Loop Prepaid Grew Faster Than Expected in 2010
Closed-loop prepaid cards held their own in 2010, growing by 13% in loads to $261.2 billion from $230.3 billion in 2009, according to Mercator Advisory Group Inc.’s newly released industry study. In fact, the closed-loop market, which while bigger in loads but slower growing than the newer, general-purpose or …
Read More »E-Commerce: Beyond Fun And Games
By Karen Epper Hoffman A fixture in online gaming, virtual currencies are moving into other digital markets and may break into the physical world. But will acceptance costs and regulatory concerns stymie their growth? Virtual currency has long been seen as little more than the …
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All Signs Point to Credit Cards’ Recovery After getting KO’d in the recession, credit card usage is back on its feet. While card issuers are more cautious than they were a few years ago, consumers who have credit cards are using them more frequently, and they are spending …
Read More »A Banker’s Nightmare: Social Networks Beget a Slew of PayPals
Non-bank threats to banking franchises like electronic payments are nothing new, but if a researcher is correct, banks and the card networks they built could soon find themselves under assault from a whole new batch of players that have found a niche in social networks and online gaming. “I don’t …
Read More »Zong’s Growth Heats up Rivalry in Mobile Payments for Downloads
If mobile-payments services are finding a niche anywhere right now, it appears to be in the market for digital goods like games and social-network applications. Palo Alto, Calf.-based Zong Inc., which began operations last year, announced this week that the processing platform it shares with its parent company, Echovox Inc., …
Read More »A Startup Aims to Bring Teens & Tweens into E-Commerce
A new payment system called BillMyParents debuted Monday that aims to tap an estimated $40 billion in potential online spending by teens and preteens, or “tweens.” But BillMyParents' success depends not just on technology, but also on the receptiveness of parents to receive e-mails or text messages from their progeny …
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