Robbo
Member
Registered: 6th Aug 02
Location: London
User status: Offline
|
Innovative new venture provides opportunity to compete in mobile advertising space
Vodafone UK, Everything Everywhere and Telefónica UK have just announced plans to create a standalone m-commerce joint venture. The new entity (the first of its kind in the UK) will bring together the expertise and technology of the UK’s leading mobile operators, enabling the rapid development and delivery of new mobile marketing and payment services.
The venture will provide a single contact for advertisers, marketing partners, retailers and banks making it far easier to create m-commerce products and services, which consumers will be able to take with them if they change mobile phone provider. The new venture will be based on open standards and available to all industry participants, maximising the benefits to consumers.
Consumers will be able to replace their physical wallet with a secure mobile wallet using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology to pay for goods and services. Consumers will also benefit from far more relevant offers and coupons, delivered direct to their phone
The new business is subject to competition clearance and is aiming to launch before the end of the year. Everything Everywhere, Telefónica UK and Vodafone UK will continue to develop their own competing products and services tailored to their own customers, which will be based on the open platform infrastructure provided by the venture.
The Commercial Development team led by Tobin Ireland have been supporting Vodafone UK along with teams from Group Technology, HR, Finance, Legal and External Affairs. Tobin commented: “The whole team has been working very hard on this for a number of months and there’s been fantastic collaboration between Vodafone UK and all the Group Functions.
This innovative new venture is critical to realising the opportunity in mobile advertising and NFC. If we’re to compete against the likes of Google’s integrated mobile commerce services, we need to deliver an industry wide solution. I’m excited about the potential the new venture will offer, although there is still a lot of work to be done to finalise the agreement and to build the business. We’ve agreed the principles of how we’ll work together with Everything Everywhere and Telefónica UK. It’s ground breaking collaboration within the mobile industry and we hope it will become the blueprint for similar efforts in our other key European markets”.
Guy Laurence, Chief Executive of Vodafone UK, commented: “The mobile phone has already become essential for millions of people across the country, keeping them in touch with friends and family and up to date with their work, interests and social life. Now, this joint venture will take the mobile phone to the next level.
People will be able to put their payment, loyalty, membership and even rail cards securely on their phone and use it to get the discounts, offers and rewards they want. In future, people will be able to ditch their wallet, all anyone will need when they leave the house is their keys and their phone. The joint venture really will help all our customers put their life in their pocket.”
|
Dom
Member
Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
|
Was reading this on The Register this morning, sounds like they just want to cash in on advertising and make that primary rather than money transactions. And i'm not 100% sure about the 'all anyone will need when they leave the house is their keys and their phone'; what happens if you lose your phone when you're out? 
|
noshua
Member
Registered: 19th Nov 08
User status: Offline
|
What happens if you loose your dog when you're out?
|
Dom
Member
Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by noshua
What happens if you loose your dog when you're out?
Put some posters up?
Either way, you're not as fucked as losing your phone which is also your wallet....
|
noshua
Member
Registered: 19th Nov 08
User status: Offline
|
Just like anything it can or will have the ability to be cancelled remotely - no sort of service would be on the market if it wasn't secure enough.
|
Dom
Member
Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by noshua
Just like anything it can or will have the ability to be cancelled remotely - no sort of service would be on the market if it wasn't secure enough.
You're reading too much into my reply, although security is another issue; hopefully it'll be a lot more secure that chip & pin. I was simply highlighting a line which puts you up shit creek if you lose your phone ie: no phone no 'wallet', no 'wallet' no money.
|
