The landscape for All-Things-Tech, which is, awkwardly
acronym-ed to be ATT (no comment) has been alive and kicking this week!! More
than anything, maybe it’s because of the cold, these technology firms have been
getting mighty comfortable with each other. Maybe too comfortable.
The real question I ask is, are they being friendly? Are
they just trying to keep up? Or are they being predatory? Let’s see the
breakdown:
·
Groupon recently announced that they were going
to move into the Payments business with the launch of their new payments
platform: Groupon
Payments
o
Predatory: Groupon’s value proposition is simple—they
pledge to match the lowest cost option for any merchant to accept credit cards
will deliver overnight credit card deposits daily. Although the reasoning
behind this move is not a surprise (they process a lot of payments, yo!),
Groupon’s size and experience is what will set it apart in terms of its ability
to scale and provide valuable customer service. Groupon will be partnering with
hardware developer ROAM (who has created readers for others in this competitive
industry) to develop an audio jack reader (a la Square) as well as a case based
reader (a la Verifone’s PayWare). By offering processing at a discount, Groupon
is gunning for bigger processors (First Data) and alternative folks (Square).
Its true test will be whether consumers trust a company known as a consumer
product brand to handle their sensitive payment information.
·
Facebook jumps in on couponing through Offers,
adds additional rider on when it will allow people to use their “free” Offers
service
o
Keeping Up/Predatory: Facebook jumping into Offers
this past May is really not that surprising (other than the fact of why it took
them so long). Adding a rider on their “free” offers service requiring
merchants who want to be featured to buy advertising….well that’s a little
different. In terms of advertising, Facebook like advertising not only because
it makes up approximately all percent of their revenue, but also because they
like to gather that data on their users…just like Google. The true test for
Facebook will be to see whether merchants are willing to pay for the right to
be featured, or if, since they have to pay anyway, they’ll just move to the
Google shop down the street.
·
Microsoft completes release of additional
details on “Surface”, Apple
releases a “special event invitation” to discuss iPad Mini
o
Predatory: Microsoft wants to get in on the
tablet game, which is predatory. Apple is trying to simultaneously defend its
position among the tablet market (currently the majority of the tablet market,
despite its high cost hardware) and
move into the tablet market that as defined with Samsung’s 7” (which was taken
off shelves due to Apple’s angry lawsuit-ing, even though the judge ultimately
ruled for Samsung. Needless to say, Apple is appealing)
o
Friendly/Predatory: This one is another one of
those halfers because MasterCard is being relatively friendly with the telcos
in that I don’t think that MasterCard wants to get into the telco business. MasterCard
has already launched an NFC payment app with Singapore’s Starhub and Everything
Everywhere in the UK and Deutsche Telekom in Europe. In this case, MasterCard
is simply leveraging more partnerships and NTT Docomo is leveraging MasterCard’s
network. That being said, MasterCard really wants to undercut the potential opportunities
through its established, NFC-based PayPass service. MPesas and Google Wallets
around the world are getting nervous because, although MasterCard is a friendly
for NTT Docomo, MasterCard is not a
friendly for other mobile payments players in the emerging markets.
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