Today In Payments: eBay Nearing Sale Of Classified Ad Division; Lollapalooza Co-Founder: No Concerts Until 2022

In today’s top news, eBay is near a sale of its classified ad division to Adevinta, and Lollapalooza’s co-founder said live concerts won’t be back until 2022. Plus, Mastercard is expanding its crypto card partner program.

eBay Nears Deal To Sell Classified Ad Division To Adevinta

eBay is reportedly close to selling its classified ads unit to Adevinta ASA, the Norwegian online marketplace, for about $8 billion or more. The auction website is refocusing its mission on consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer online sales.

Lollapalooza Co-Founder Predicts No Concerts Until 2022

Lollapalooza co-founder Marc Geiger predicted that U.S. fans may have to wait until 2022 to see a concert because of COVID-19. Lollapalooza’s website says the four-day music festival will be held virtually this year.

Mastercard Expands Crypto Card Partner Program

Mastercard, responding to the burgeoning cryptocurrency space, has updated its Accelerate program to help make it easier for crypto firm partners to bring cards to the market, according to a press release.

EU Banks Face Massive Losses On Exiting Wirecard Loans

Some European lenders say they expect to recover as little as 20 percent of the nearly $2 billion they are owed from Wirecard, the FinTech that is now in the middle of a massive fraud and money laundering scandal and faces insolvency with the debt of nearly $4 billion.

What A 90-Year-Old Essay Tells Us About 2020’s Great Digital Shift

Economist John Maynard Keynes wrote a 4,000-word essay in 1930 offering an optimistic view of the future to a world in the grip of the Great Depression. He urged everyone to watch the “advance guard setting up their tents in the promised land” for a glimpse of how the future might unfold 100 years hence. Today, in a world gripped by the pandemic, Karen Webster says our advance guard are those tens of millions of Digital 3.0 personas who have already made the shift to digital, and who say that most, or all, of their digital habits will stick.

Checkers And Rally’s: How The Drive-Thru Is Changing QSR Loyalty And Rewards

In our latest Order to Eat Tracker, Josh Buchmann, senior director of guest engagement for Checkers and Rally’s, discusses how the drive-thru experience is forcing quick-service restaurants (QSRs) to rethink how personalizing rewards and loyalty can drive the guest experience.

Is Voice The Ultimate Touchless Payments Experience?

Voice-technology systems like Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant and Amazon’s Alexawere already on the rise long before the global pandemic broke out, but consumers’ new emphasis on digital commerce and touchless technologies are giving the ecosystem a big boost. Is voice tech the ultimate in touchless payments technology? We break it down.