July 26, 2012
payvia's New Mobile Payments Service Focuses On Online Payments
By Steve Anderson Contributing TMCnet Writer
Just yesterday, payvia rolled out a new mobile payments platform, geared for carrier billing. This particular mobile payments offering will prove somewhat different from others in the space, and considering the sheer number of competitors in the field, this should raise some eyebrows in its own right.
The payvia offering actually isn't new. payvia itself was actually spun off from m-Qube, which was started way back in 2004, and was at the time geared toward providing carrier billing for things like ringtones and wallpaper. But the payvia offering builds on m-Qube's original by jumping into the world of digital goods and services, of which there are a steadily growing amount.
Right now, payvia's focus is on app developers—including web-based apps—and those who sell digital goods. That focus has actually garnered payvia two fairly major clients, but payvia isn't actually permitted to say just who it is involved with them. However, payvia did manage to provide a hint for one of them, saying that it was a “communications company” with “a platform for making phone calls”, which could be just about anything. The other company couldn't even be hinted at, as even a hint would be a dead giveaway, according to payvia officials.
For the end user, meanwhile, payvia is set to work both online and with mobile devices, giving users a new option at checkout. Instead of routing payment through a credit card or through Paypal or the like, payvia allows users to send the bill to their mobile carrier, who will add it to their own bill to the user, thus centralizing all purchases made online.
Even payvia has competitors in the market space, including Bango, Netsize, Fortumo and Zong—which in turn was recently acquired by eBay (News - Alert)—so there will be plenty of firms going after this market and, in all likelihood, plenty of options for consumers. There's already sufficient competition among the firms in the market that, reportedly, payvia has already sued over a couple rounds of patent infringement. The payvia system is already in place with Sprint (News - Alert) and T-Mobile, and there should be an even bigger expansion in the works when payvia can actually say more about the companies it's already working with.
With music already firmly established as a digital delivery product, and movies, TV shows, books and even art following suit, having a platform that can handle carrier payments is a smart idea. It gives users a new option, one that may well feel more secure, and as such, serves as an inducement to buy. If buying online is easier, safer and simpler, then more people may well do it. More buyers means more money, more money means more competitors, and more competitors generally means more jobs and more jobs means good news all around.
The payvia system may well be part of an impressive new movement in online commerce, and it should prove exciting to see just where it goes.
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Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli
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