Take a look at your wallet, with its debit, credit and loyalty cards neatly stacked, along with perhaps a few coupons. Now imagine it could be digital, fitting neatly into your mobile phone. This is what Visa has envisioned for 2011 and it looks like it’s moving forward with its plans.
“We want to take the friction out of mobile payments and to replicate consumers’ physical wallets via an application on their phone. This is the concept we’re working on,” Bill Gajda, head of Visa Mobile, said back at Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) in Barcelona.
Visa announced this week a new service that is moving towards its digital wallet vision. The company is launching the next generation of payments solutions that include a secure cross-channel digital wallet and a range of customized mobile payments services. The digital wallet will store Visa and non-Visa payments accounts, support NFC payments through the Visa payWave application that allows transactions in eCommerce, mobile commerce, micropayments, social networks and person-to-person payments.
Key features include a click-to-buy option where users can shop securely by entering an email address, alias or online ID and password, instead of a billing address, account number and expiration date. In addition, Visa is exploring dynamic authentication technologies that will bring added layers of security to online purchases. The new payment system also features cross-channel payments solution in which the wallet consolidates multiple Visa and non-Visa payments accounts and can be used in mobile, eCommerce, social network and retail point-of-sale environments.
According to The New York Times, the first users will likely be online gamers, particularly social gaming, which will allow Visa customers to buy virtual goods in game.
“E-commerce is our fastest growing channel,” said Jim McCarthy, the head of global products at Visa. “We know we can do a lot to improve the experience in the e-commerce environment.”
This new solution is the product of two acquisitions that the company made over the last several months – PlaySpan (News - Alert), a start-up that lets people pay for virtual goods in games, and CyberSource, an e-payments company.
Visa expects to launch the digital wallet in the U.S. and Canada in fall 2011.
Michelle Amodio is a TMCnet contributor. She has helped promote companies and groups in all industries, from technology to banking to professional roller derby. She holds a bachelor's degree in Writing from Endicott College and currently works in marketing, journalism, and public relations as a freelancer.Edited by Jennifer Russell
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