A new way to pay our bills is about to start — the mobile payment. The “m-payment” is already present in Brazil. It involves paying your bills through authentication via cell phone, similar to a credit card when we type the password in order to confirm the transaction. There are currently several methods being implemented around the world and some have been working for years, such as Premium SMS based, Mobile web payments, and Contactless NFC (Near Field Communication).
The methods being developed in Brazil are the Premium SMS based and the NFC. The first method involves the customer sending a payment request via SMS text message to short codes (special telephone numbers). Once the transaction is approved, the merchant is informed about the payment success and the transaction is concluded. The second method is used mostly for purchases made in actual stores (as opposed to Internet purchases) because it requires a special mobile phone equipped with a smart-card. The card concludes the transaction with a reader module, requiring authentication. One of the main reasons for using these two new technologies is to integrate and adapt credit card, debit card, transportation, and meal voucher payments to a mobile phone.
Although the Brazilian financial system is solid, modern and well-distributed, 49 percent of the population is still deprived of banking services, which means there is a great demand for mobile financial products by millions of people. A contributing factor is the huge presence of cell phones in Brazil – about 106.9 percent. This means there are currently more cell phones than people in Brazil! Thus, the stage is set for mass adoption of services offered by mobile devices.
Brazil is poised with the necessary banking knowledge that is essential to the success of mobile payments. However, some obstacles still need to be overcome. For example, the lack of coordination among the various companies that offer this service — telecom operators, banks, and large retail chains need to understand and respect the needs and operations of each other. They all must learn to work together. Also, since mobile payments are new, there is a large legal gap resulting from the absence of regulation. There is a lack of clarity in the banking laws, which do not define the legal parameters of non-financial institutions, such as a wireless carriers offering payment services in Brazil.
Judging from this scenario, experts agree that it is unlikely the Brazilian market will have a single universal system for payments via mobile devices in the near future. However, if we look back just a few years, how long did it once take for a merchant having one card terminal to process all the different “plastic” options? Payment services have improved dramatically in a short period of time. Nevertheless, the future expectation for mobile payments is enormous. There are currently 1.6 million mobile transactions performed annually, but this number is expected to reach almost 12 million by 2014.
* Article published on Curitiba in English.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Saturday, November 26, 2011
What most people do on the Internet
Do you spend hours on the internet, watching videos, checking e-mails, reading news or going shopping?
An infographic published by the website Flowtown do a research what most people do while connected virtually.
What users most do on the virtual world are: read or send e-mails, use search engines, search for medical or health information, check info about the weather and search for services or products.
At the other end, that is, the less things people do online, are creating or working on personal pages, buy or sell stocks, using dating sites, visiting universes like Second Life - and for surprise, access the Twitter!
Although this research does not show specific data with numbers such as online pornography, the information is very interesting to understand a bit more the internet's influence on people's life.
The data are divided in categories to make easy comprehension:
Entertainment and Social Networks
- 71% of people watch movies on YouTube or Vimeo;
- 65% are subscribed on relationship websites, such as Facebook or LinkedIn;
- 46% do photo upload to shared with other;
- 32% play games;
- 32% read newspaper or blogs informative ;
- 30% share something that created;
- 21% do podcast download;
- 13% use the Twitter;
- 14% use dating websites;
Finances
- 61% do operations on online banking;
- 37% search financial information, such as interest rates;
- 25% donate to a charity;
- 11% buy or sell stocks, bonds or mutual funds;
News
- 81% search for data about the weather;
- 76% receive news in general;
- 61% search for news about politics;
- 52% read news or any information about sports;
Personal Business
- 92% send or receive emails;
- 65% buy or make travel reservation;
- 37% evaluate products, services or persons;
- 24% do telephone calls;
- 15% create or work on web-pages or collaborative blogs;
- 14% create or work on blogs or personal websites;
- 14% have a personal website;
Shopping
- 78% search information about services and products;
- 71% buy some product;
- 53% put advertisements such as Craigslist;
- 26% participate on virtual auctions;
- 15% sell something
Web browsing and search
- 92% use search engines to find information;
- 83% search for medical or health information;
- 67% visit pages of cities, states or federal government;
- 56% search information about jobs;
- 53% read on Wikipedia;
- 32% post comments on groups, blogs or photos;
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Social Network: Which One Are You On? *
As we search for a definition of social networks, we discover that it’s a form of representation of emotional or professional relationships between human beings. A social network is responsible for the sharing of ideas among people who share common goals and values. For example, a discussion group consists of individuals who have similar interests. Today, these social networks are occurring primarily on the Internet, lending to the accelerating of dissemination of common ideas.
Whenever we talk about social networks in Brazil, the first name that comes to mind is Orkut. Launched in 2004, it was the first social network in Brazil and today has more than 60 million profiles. This social network is the most common one among Brazilians, who represent more than 50% of Orkut’s users, followed by Indians and Americans, respectively. Also, this networking tool has been a huge attraction of the Internet in Brazil, since more than 82% of those who access the Internet have an Orkut profile, according to research published by Ibope Nielsen.
However, it’s not only Orkut that has proven attractive to Brazilians. Recently, Twitter and Facebook are competing for second position in the total number of Brazilian users.
Moreover, not only are individuals making use of Orkut and Twitter, but also companies are now looking at social networks as an opportunity for marketing their products and getting closer to consumers by spreading news or launching campaigns in a more straightforward manner, such as using promotions and awards.
The newest social network to arrive is called Google Plus, and in just weeks, has exploded with such a huge number of users that it’s surprised even Google itself, its creator. Integrated with other Google services, the Google Plus network site goes beyond Orkut, with a different concept of interaction and new ways to get closer to friends. Before its launch, many media critics raised this question: Is there space in people’s lives for more social networks? Google Plus has answered that question with a resounding yes, by making clear enhancements and providing additional value to users.
The popularity of Google Plus and other social networking sites seems to suggest that changes don’t necessarily happen when society adopts a new tool, but certainly when it adopts a new behavior, and a new trend is created by seeing old ideas in a new way.
If we look around today we can see other kinds of social networks in use on the Internet. For example, there are popular ones for photo publications, for professional careers, content organization, and also ones providing integration among university students, teachers and classes.
Either way, the idea of social networks is not really so new at all. However, on the Internet, they work in a far more powerful and dynamic way. Thus, if you have some interests in common with others, perhaps it’s time to share. See you there!
* Article published on Curitiba in English.
Whenever we talk about social networks in Brazil, the first name that comes to mind is Orkut. Launched in 2004, it was the first social network in Brazil and today has more than 60 million profiles. This social network is the most common one among Brazilians, who represent more than 50% of Orkut’s users, followed by Indians and Americans, respectively. Also, this networking tool has been a huge attraction of the Internet in Brazil, since more than 82% of those who access the Internet have an Orkut profile, according to research published by Ibope Nielsen.
However, it’s not only Orkut that has proven attractive to Brazilians. Recently, Twitter and Facebook are competing for second position in the total number of Brazilian users.
Moreover, not only are individuals making use of Orkut and Twitter, but also companies are now looking at social networks as an opportunity for marketing their products and getting closer to consumers by spreading news or launching campaigns in a more straightforward manner, such as using promotions and awards.
The newest social network to arrive is called Google Plus, and in just weeks, has exploded with such a huge number of users that it’s surprised even Google itself, its creator. Integrated with other Google services, the Google Plus network site goes beyond Orkut, with a different concept of interaction and new ways to get closer to friends. Before its launch, many media critics raised this question: Is there space in people’s lives for more social networks? Google Plus has answered that question with a resounding yes, by making clear enhancements and providing additional value to users.
The popularity of Google Plus and other social networking sites seems to suggest that changes don’t necessarily happen when society adopts a new tool, but certainly when it adopts a new behavior, and a new trend is created by seeing old ideas in a new way.
If we look around today we can see other kinds of social networks in use on the Internet. For example, there are popular ones for photo publications, for professional careers, content organization, and also ones providing integration among university students, teachers and classes.
Either way, the idea of social networks is not really so new at all. However, on the Internet, they work in a far more powerful and dynamic way. Thus, if you have some interests in common with others, perhaps it’s time to share. See you there!
* Article published on Curitiba in English.
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
How the SMS is changing the World
A research published by the website MBA shows how the text message is in our life and how we work with it. The research shows a significant growth particularly in developing countries. The numbers are impressive:
- Exists 4,2 billion users in the world, that means 3 in each 5 habitats of the planet. This represents five times the number of Facebook users, and four times of Google users. Also represents the population of the entire world in 1975.
- In 2010, were sent 6,1 trillion messages, 338% more than in 2007.
- 48 million people have cellphone but no electricity. They use car batteries to charge their phones.
- The beneficial use of SMS are present in poor countries, such as Ghana and Nigeria where it is common the counterfeit drugs. So HP has developed a system that allows consumer to check the expiration date of a product. It just need to send an SMS with the printed code on the package to the government service and soon they receive a confirmation of the authenticity of the product.
- The feature phone, aka "dumb phone" (the simple ones) is the number 1 selling electronic product in the world.
- 87% of Fillipinos prefer communicating to their government by text message. Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo set up texting lines for 54 government agencies. Residents can report crime, drug activity and general complaints by text message.
- 13 millions, or 1 in 3 Kenyans use the mobile banking service M-Pesa, which lets users transfer money, receive salaries and pay bills by text messages.
Short messages that increasingly form the bulk of human interaction. From banking to health-care, texting is reshaping every aspect of how humans live.
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