Mobile Commerce

Extending its reach into emerging mobile-banking and payments markets, First Data Corp. on Thursday announced an agreement with mFoundry Inc. under which the leading payment processor will offer mFoundry services to the thousands of bank and credit-union members of First Data's Star electronic-funds transfer network. The First Data agreement marks …

PayPal Inc.'s much-anticipated mobile-commerce service made its official debut this week in a development PayPal executive Kevin Dulsky calls a “game-changing” event for the electronic-transactions business. The launch of PayPal Mobile Checkout, which claims at least 20 merchants signed up so far, follows weeks of speculation about the m-commerce version …

The momentum behind contactless payments is likely to stall unless the wave-and-pay method moves from cards to mobile phones, a new research report argues. But while that movement may boost the potential for mobile payments, it will also require a delicate balance of interests among card issuers, payment networks, merchants, …

Obopay Inc. on Thursday announced four new businesses for its mobile-commerce application, bringing to six the number of companies using the Redwood City, Calif.-based processor's service to enable payments via handsets. The news follows Verizon Communications Inc.'s decision to adopt Obopay's application for mobile payments on its wireless network, which …

DVD Empire is among the first of what will apparently be a series of Internet merchants this summer to adopt a new payments service offered by PayPal Mobile. The Warrendale, Pa.-based online seller of DVDs is going live with a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) site for mobile phones, with payments …

Just as U.S. banks and merchants rev up plans for mobile commerce, U.S. mobile phone users are accessing the mobile Web more than ever, with a particularly strong spurt of growth in usage over the past year. Some 21% of worldwide links to the mobile Internet through a platform operated …

The recent surge of interest by banks in allowing customers to view accounts, pay bills, and perform other functions via mobile phones is paving the way for mobile payments to merchants at the point of sale, according to a new research report. In particular, the report argues, mobile banking will …

Unlike efforts during the dotcom boom to introduce mobile payments and banking?efforts that turned out to be more about hype than substance?initiatives emerging now to deliver financial services via mobile phones will find a ready and willing market, according to executives with a major wireless carrier and bank card network …

Prepaid card processor eCommLink Inc. is joining with mobile phone and payment technology providers to offer a cell phone and prepaid debit MasterCard tied to a single account. The prepaid MasterCard function eventually will be incorporated into the phone, enabling consumers to use the phone for payments at merchants' points …

A Seattle-based startup that translates merchant sites to the mobile Web in a matter of minutes has doubled the number of sites it has signed up for its service in the last six weeks, according to the company's top executive. The company, mPoria Inc., now has about 30 sites signed …