M-wallet: Visa V.me Soon to Be Rolled Out

• Visa’s digital wallet V.me has already been made available with five partner e merchants (Buy.com, Bidz.com, Cooking.com, Modique and PacSun) and should be commercially rolled out by the end of the year. Originally focusing on online sales, the digital wallet would, with time, enable in store mobile payments too.

• Announced end 2011, V.me lets its users store payment cards regardless of their brand. Tests are underway with Visa’s employees. External subscribers can make part in the experiment too by registering their card at checking out on partner websites, without having to discontinue their payment process.

• According to rumours, the network could opt for a combination between Secure Element (SE) and distant servers for sensitive user data storage. This "hybrid" approach contrasts with its rivals’ strategies: Isis should rely on the SIM-embedded SE, and Google mainly uses its own servers to store this data (the SE is only acts as a bridge to track the user).

Source: Digital Transactions

• Last May, Visa announced the name of its first e-merchant partner, Buy.com. Tests are still under way and Visa intends to convince more merchants by the end of the year. It also counts on its affiliated institutions to promote its new service. The network could also allow its customers to store other documents including transportation tickets or IDs, as Apple should with Passbook (see June 2012 Insight). Also, geolocated rewards offers could be envisaged and currently piloted in a Gap store.

• Visa, just like MasterCard with PayPass Wallet Services (see May 2012 Insight), will have to face low equipment rates in compatible acceptance readers at retail outlets. These networks also benefit from assets their competitors don’t on the mobile market however they keep making announcements (PayPal, Google and Isis, mostly): in fact, users generally trust Visa and MasterCard more.

• In the end of April, Visa announced that V.me would be made available in France, Britain and Spain by this fall, and, last July some sources claimed it would be rolled out in Ukraine too.