To be sure, there are opportunities to lower the cost of electronic payments to the merchant, but that battlefield is composed of incumbent players who (as the potential delay of the Durbin Amendment on debit processing costs amply demonstrates) are very strong and defend their turf with skill and vigor. Google may sidestep that battle, looking to win the mobile advertising war instead. Since Google’s ad revenues are 96% of its business, and the world is going mobile, it’s obvious where the search giant’s interests lie.
Google is reportedly planning to test a mobile payment service on terminals powered by US electronic payment services company VeriFone Systems at stores in two US cities, namely New York and San Francisco, media outlet Bloomberg.com reports.
According to the source, these sales terminals are set to accept payments made via Android-powered smartphones based on NFC technology. Thus, the project is expected to allow consumers to pay for products by tapping a device against a register at checkout.
In addition, the source reports that the Google service is expected to offer several options, such as consumers’ financial account information, gift card balances, store loyalty cards and coupon subscriptions on an NFC chip on mobile phones.
Click here to read more from the article as well as a post from Ars Technia.
