M-payment: Visa Europe Invests in the British JV MMN
- In line with its mobile development strategy, Visa Europe has invested in the British JV focusing on mobile services for merchants Mobile Money Network (MMN). The card network has acquired 15% shares in MMN – composed of Monitise, Best Buy Europe and Charles Dunstone (founder of UK independent mobile phone retailer The Carphone Warehouse).
- This partnership aims at improving the implementation of m-commerce-related initiatives in the UK in 2012. All these services should rely on MMN’s infrastructures for mobile shopping, to enable the JV to expand its reach and access mass market.
- MMN’s mobile cash collection solution Simply Tap was launched in November 2011, allowing customers to identify and make payments using their mobile phone (at points of sales, online and, from now on, through smart poster): they simply have to dial in the product’s barcode to buy it and receive it at home. The Simply Tap app (for iPhones and Android-based terminals) will soon include new offers only accessible to Visa cardholders.
- According to Visa 50% of the transactions will be initiated by mobile by 2020; its investment in Mobile Money Network, and its recent initiatives (see previous Insights), confirm this conviction. The network now disposes of a seat at MMN’s board to decide, with mobile carriers, for the future of mobile payments in the UK. Founded in March 2011, the joint venture launched Simply Tap through relying on “new generation” mobile technologies.
- The JV has been enabling its subscribers to identify instantly and has been integrating IR as well as QR codes since the beginning of March 2012. Simply Tap is now promoted with the help of chocolate maker Thorntons through poster displayed in London; its new features are highlighted in a promotional context for Easter. This is the first large-scale IR-based payment initiative in the UK.