Commentary

Parlez-Vous PayPal?
August 20, 2012

The news that Mickey D’s now accepts PayPal in 30 locations in France got the Internet buzzing yesterday. Most of the stories just reported the Reuters story from Friday. But, if you want to know the whole scoop and nothing but the scoop on what...

Will Square On Caffeine Ignite Mobile?
August 09, 2012

So much for the dog days of summer! The Starbucks/Square wallet news turned an unusually hot summer (both temperatures and payments news) into a real scorcher. EVERYONE in the payments industry is buzzing over the news and speculating about its implications to themselves and to...

Google’s Wallapalooza 2.0
August 05, 2012

Just in time for the 22nd anniversary of the Jane’s Addiction farewell tour, otherwise known as Lollapalooza, Google made news with some pretty big changes to its digital wallet. Here’s our take on how Google may have just made its way thru the mosh pit...

The Case Of The Enveloping Platform
August 02, 2012

All of the discussion about Facebook’s lousy earnings last week brought to mind a little story about platforms that I wanted to share with you. Once upon a time in early 2004, there was this computer genius of a guy named Mark Zuckerburg. He had...

How Lucrative Is LevelUp For Merchants?
July 22, 2012

LevelUp made news about a week ago when it announced that it was eliminating interchange fees for its merchant customers. Instead, LevelUp said it would assess a fee based on the value of the promotions redeemed by the customers of its merchants. This move was...

Talk Is Cheap: Redefining Innovation in Payments
June 19, 2012

We are about two weeks away from opening the voting on the 2012 PYMNTS.com Innovator Awards. The field that we have sent to the judges is nothing short of awesome. Some 150 companies took a lot of time to prepare and submit their nominations. What...

PayPal’s “Shot Across The Bow” At Square’s Local Efforts
May 28, 2012

Ciao! Greetings from Rome where I am, ahem, doing a little field work on the adoption of mobile payments outside of the US. Ok, well maybe just a little in between some great fieldwork checking out the coolest shops, restaurants, and museums in this most...

What Merchants Want Out Of Mobile Commerce
May 14, 2012

As I said on Friday, CTIA invited 50,000 of its closest friends to gather in NOLA for its big International Wireless show. My final post will describe a few further musings on what I saw and heard – and a summary of my most awesome...

Wallets Within Wallets At CTIA: Will Competitors Play Nice?
May 11, 2012

As I said on Friday, CTIA invited 50,000 of its closest friends to gather in NOLA for its big International Wireless show. I moderated a panel on mobile commerce, plus wandered the exhibit floor and sat in on some sessions. Here is my second post...