SMS Text and Micro Payments. SMS and Micro Payments Blog

Posted by Fox on September 4, 2007 at 12:59 PM

Last week Google applied to patent one of the cornerstones of mobile commerce - billing by SMS. Details of the invention, entitled "Text message payment", are scant in the application that was published on Thursday. But US 2007/0203836 does, however, illustrate the extent of Google's ambitions. It envisages payments for conventional retail shopping (for example at Starbucks or McDonald's), as well as browser-based surfing, and SMS services such as ringtones.

The invention is, according to the application:

A computer-implemented method of effectuating a payment, comprising: receiving at a computer server system a text message from a payor containing a payment request comprising a payment amount sent by a payor device operating independently of the computer server system; debiting a payor account for an amount corresponding to the amount of the payment request; and crediting a payee account that is independent of the computer server system.

via : theregister.co.uk

Posted by Fox on August 24, 2007 at 3:11 PM

E-payment service provider ClickandBuy has teamed up with mobile transaction network mBlox to offer text-messaging services for consumers and merchants throughout Europe and the United States. ClickandBuy says the move is the first step in its pursuit to build a full-fledged mobile payments platform that it hopes to complete over the next six months.

mBlox, which specializes in providing operator connectivity and mobile billing capabilities, will work with ClickandBuy in preparing a global payments system that will enable the easy billing of content through mobile devices.

Link: mblox.com

Via : tmcnet.com

Posted by Fox on July 24, 2007 at 5:28 AM

Ticket-Text is aiming to take ticketing mobile. The Irish start-up, which claims VC and private funding and which has former Sony BMG global marketing SVP Tim Delaney as chairman, lets customers buy paperless to concerts, sport events and so on before the “ticket” is sent as a barcode via SMS message to their mobile phone and is scanned at the venue.

Today, Irish budget airline Ryanair announced it will use Ticket-Text technology to give virtual tickets for the theater, gallery, festival and exhibition excursions it tries to sell European passengers.

Links: ryanair.com | ticket-text.com

Source : moconews.com

Posted by Fox on July 17, 2007 at 11:44 AM

Westminster Council in London is paving the way, and other local authorities across the country are watching with interest.

The council is scrapping coin-fed machines in the capital’s West End in exchange for a cashless system. It will make searching for loose change at the roadside a thing of the past, with motorists paying via mobile phone.

Westminster is axing the traditional meters after a successful six-month trial, plus a poll of drivers which found three-quarters would rather pay by phone.

To use the new system, motorists have to first set up a parking account, which can then be debited by SMS text alerts sent from their mobiles. These would include registration num­bers and the parking bay reference, marked on signs on the street. That information is then automatically sent straight to wardens’ hand-held units, so they can check if owners have paid. A traffic light display on these devices sees number plates of cars with time left highlighted in green, with those which have expired shown in red.

Motorists can even make top-up payments if they need to extend their stay in the space. Council bosses say text reminders will be sent a few min­utes before a driver’s time runs out.

All 3,700 of Westminster’s meters will be replaced with the cashless sys­tem, or the authority’s latest chip and pin units, by the end of next year.

Removing coin-fed machines from the roadside is expected to eliminate theft and vandalism. However, the chip and pin meters could still be open to fraud – especially ‘skimming’, where the data from a card’s magnetic strip is electronically copied on to another.

A Westminster spokesman told AutoExpress magazine: “Small cameras can be installed to monitor these machines if we suspect that they are being targeted.”

Source : autoexpress.co.uk

Posted by Fox on June 20, 2007 at 4:21 PM

I'm working like at madman to finish of some major tweaks on this site. You may notice one or two pages not working at intended. I should be done in a couple of hours.

Posted by Fox on June 5, 2007 at 11:09 AM

Up to now, the companies using PayPal's 14-month-old Text to Buy have largely been media companies, manufacturers, and consumer brands like Fox Home Entertainment (DVDs), Sony BMG (CDs), NBC/Bravo (television-show merchandise), and the National Basketball Association (team- and league-related merchandise).

digitaltransactions.net are reporting a major boost for the product in Internet Retailing.

DVD Empire is the first of what will apparently be a series of Internet merchants this summer to adopt a payments service offered by PayPal Mobile.

The Warrendale, Pa.-based online seller of DVDs on Thursday started accepting payments via Text to Buy, a service that allows consumers to make impulse purchases of merchandise by entering a short code and merchant phone number in their cell phones.

By enabling mobile commerce, DVD Empire hopes to appeal to a younger audience that is accustomed to text messaging and using their handsets for data services. “We’re targeting kids who download ring tones,” Alicia Berry, director of operations at the merchant, told an audience Monday at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in San Jose, Calif.

Read the complete article

Also, not entirely unrelated is my own experience with a PayPal marketing campaign that bit me in the arse!