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Posts By Karen Webster
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10.0KHmmmThe Dangers Of Groupthink
Was med-tech startup, Theranos, following in the footsteps of Uber and simply embarking on “permissionless” innovation? Or is its current firestorm the...
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Hmmm
Does The CFPB Really Help Consumers?
The law of unintended consequences is alive and well in Washington, D.C. and in particular, inside the agency formed to advocate for...
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Karen Webster
The Blockchain: ‘Just Like the Internet,’ Except That It’s Not
The Blockchain: “It’s just like the Internet.” And so starts every conversation by the devoted to explain why bitcoin and the blockchain...
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International
The Incredible Mobile Payments Myth
MPD CEO Karen Webster says that everything that you’ve heard over the last several years about how successful mobile payments are at...
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5.9KControversialWill Ad Blockers Drive Mobile Commerce Innovation?
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Karen Webster
Will Apple Own The Payments Customer?
It’s September 14, 2022, eight years after the first Apple Pay network and issuer deals were signed. Does Apple own the payments’...
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Karen Webster
“First, Let’s Kill All The (Payments) Innovators!”
Dick The Butcher, in Shakespeare’s "Henry VI," famously proposed “first let’s kill the lawyers” as the most appropriate way to jumpstart the...
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18.7KKaren WebsterThe Great American (Express) Spin-off?
2015 has been a tough year for American Express. Its stock price and market cap have been pummeled, Costco waved goodbye (taking...
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10.6KKaren WebsterTo See The Future Of Retail, Look At Mobile Banking
Want to see the future of retail? Take a look at retail banking today. Sounds nuts, doesn’t it? But MPD CEO Karen...
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4.6KMobile CommerceExclusive: MCX CEO On CurrentC’s Future
On Aug. 15, 2012, a group of retailers representing $1 Trillion in purchasing power announced that it was banding together to create...
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Karen Webster
How To Reinvent Retail In Three Words
Coming out of the Retail Reinvention Summit last week, one thing became very clear: there are as many ways to approach the...
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Karen Webster
Payments At The Beach!
It’s the first week of August time and that can only mean one thing: It’s time to head to the beach. For...
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Karen Webster
The Emperor’s New Currency
One hundred and seventy eight years ago, Hans Christian Andersen wrote a political satire disguised as a fairy tale. That tale told...
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7.2KControversial
Will CurrentC Succeed? Here’s How We’ll Know
Bloomberg ran a story late Friday announcing the imminent launch of CurrentC, the merchant-owned and operated mobile payments scheme. Oh, you missed...
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Hmmm
The A, B, Cs Of PayPal’s Next Act
Today is “day one” of PayPal as an independent player, broken apart from the eBay that ignited some 13 years ago. And...
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7.9KKaren WebsterWhat’s More Valuable – A Buy Button Or a Digital Wallet?
Mobile payments is becoming a pretty messy space. One might argue that it’s been a hot mess ever since the massive proliferation...
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Karen Webster
Want To Meet A Few Of The “Payments Revolutionaries” Who’ve Changed Payments?
Last Saturday, America celebrated the 239th anniversary of the outcome that these revolutionaries fought for: independence from the King, But the payments...
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Karen Webster
The Dangers of Listening To Consumers
In 1999, 92 percent of consumers said that they didn’t trust that their data was secure when transacting online. Sixteen years later,...
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4.9KKaren WebsterAre Card Networks Tomorrow’s Ad Platforms?
Card-linked offers have been singularly unimpressive as a category. They’ve been around for years and raised a ton of capital, but have...
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Karen Webster
What Mobile Wallets And Smartphone Cameras Now Have In Common
Apple and Google Android have just recast mobile wallets as smartphone utilities – putting them in the same category as cameras, maps,...
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Karen Webster
The Most Frequently Asked Question About Mobile Payments
“Are we there yet,” though, is shorthand for “When will all of the time and money and investments we’ve made in mobile...
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Karen Webster
Why Android Pay Isn’t Really About Payments At All
To no one’s great surprise, we added another “Pay” player to payments last week. Android Pay threw its hat into the mobile...
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Controversial
The CFPB, PrePaid Cards And Protecting Consumers To Death
So here’s a question. When is a prepaid card actually a credit card? Here’s an answer: When the CFPB says so. The...
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Karen Webster
The “Why” Behind Google Buy
Remember the piece I wrote last week about whether payments can save the Internet ad giants? Well, it appears that Google not...
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Karen Webster
Can Payments Save Internet Ad Giants?
What do LinkedIn, Twitter, Google and Yelp have in common with goldfish? Let me give you a hint. Goldfish are said to...
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Karen Webster
MCX’s Four Fatal Flaws And What Payments Innovators Can Learn From Them
MCX’s Interim CEO, Brian Mooney, starts his first day on the job today. And, this seasoned and well respected industry veteran is...
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infographics
Who Won’t Win The Mobile Wallet “Wars” And Why
Blame it on the promotional run-up to the December 2015 release of Star Wars Episode 7, but the subject of the mobile...
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18.4KKaren WebsterWhy Square’s Greatest Ambition Has Become Its Biggest Threat
“Dorsey is the only guy in the industry who’s thinking about payments in a deep way, and Square is the only payments...
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News
The Year of Payments – 2015 – One Quarter In
According to the Chinese lunar calendar, 2015 is the Year of the Sheep. Sheep, so says the Chinese astrological calendar, are gentle,...
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Karen Webster
Could Amazon Do To Groceries What It Did to Books?
Amazon’s launch of Dash might be the best look we’ve had so far into how Amazon thinks about omnichannel. And, its plans...
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Karen Webster
Is Physical Retail A Threat To Amazon?
Today is the day that it’s reported Amazon will launch version 2.0 of its local services play. Branded Amazon Home Services, this...
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5.8KKaren WebsterIs Facebook Now Payments’ Biggest Threat?
Last week’s Innovation Project 2015 was all about “Innovation at the Intersections” – a nod to the influence of the many powerful...
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Karen Webster
The Definitive Innovation Project Cheat Sheet
Innovation Project, or “Woodstock for Payments’ geeks” kicks off in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in just about two days and in the final weekend before...
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Karen Webster
Could Apple Pay Fraud Be A Sign Of Its Success?
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Karen Webster
Do Android Pay, Google Wallet And Samsung Pay Have What It Takes To Win In Mobile Payments?
Last week, there were a couple of major announcements in the world of mobile payments that suggest that the battle for supremacy...
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Karen Webster
Mobile Payments’ Red Carpet
Who’s Walking Mobile Payments’ Red Carpet? Let’s face it; you don’t have to see a single movie nominated for an Oscar...
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Karen Webster
Can Anything Save Loyalty?
There’s no good news these days if you’re in the loyalty business. It’s easy, though, to think that there is. For instance,...
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Karen Webster
PayPal’s Retail Future
Kerfuffle is one of my all-time favorite words. I used it a while back to describe the situation that happened when some...
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Karen Webster
Payments Innovation Rankings Soon To Be Unveiled
Have you ever looked up “innovation” in the dictionary? I did and here’s what I found. Innovation | the act of innovating....
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Karen Webster
The Fed’s Slow March To Maybe Faster Payments
The payments world was literally sitting on pins and needles waiting for the Fed to disclose more specifics on its 18-month study...
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Karen Webster
What Payments Innovators Can Learn From Bill Belichick
Boy, did I ever step in it last week. I was speaking to a group of payments professionals in Denver and followed...
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Acquiring
Payments Industry Pairings and Partings In 2015
Here we are – 19 days into a new year and midway in the month known apparently as “divorce month.” According to...
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Karen Webster
Will Apple Pay Bring Banks And Merchants Together?
Last week, I was given a copy of the UBS report on Apple Pay. It claims that the launch of Apple Pay...
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Karen Webster
Are You Ready For 2015’s Retail Reinvention?
What does retail today have in common with retail in 1982? Everything – and nothing all at the same time. And if...
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Karen Webster
PYMNTS Greatest Hits
I wrote about 260,000 words over the last year summarizing my take on the many developments taking place in payments and commerce....
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Karen Webster
Did You Listen To Your Payments’ Sixth Sense This Year?
Yep. It’s that time of the year – when we pause to reflect on the year that was as we prepare to...
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Karen Webster
What Payments Will Look Like In 2015
Last week I laid out the 10 things that happened in 2014 that I believe will shape the direction of payments for...
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Karen Webster
The Ten Things That Changed Payments In 2014
Ah, yes, it’s the most magical time of the year. Predicting what the next year holds for all of us in payments....
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6.5KAlternative FinancesHow Many Consumers In Apple Pay’s Bushel Basket?
Talk about poking a hornet’s nest. MPD Founder and economist, David Evans, wrote a piece on Friday about Apple Pay that got...
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4.2KFinancial InclusionWhat Do The God Particle, Yodeling and Knights Have To Do With The Future Of Payments?
“Vague but exciting.” These three words could be used to describe just about any early-stage idea when it’s first presented. I’ll bet...
