Mobile Payment

Mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer, and mobile wallet generally refer to payment services operated under financial regulation and performed from or via a mobile device.

Financial institutions and credit card companies as well as Internet companies such as Google and a number of mobile communication companies, such as mobile network operators and major telecommunications infrastructure such as w-HA from Orange and handset multinationals such as Ericsson have implemented mobile payment solutions.

Mobile payment is an alternative payment method. Instead of paying with cash, check, or credit cards, a consumer can use a mobile phone to pay for a wide range of services and digital or hard goods such as:

• Music, videos, ringtones, online game subscription or items, wallpapers and other digital goods.
• Transportation fare (bus, subway or train), parking meters and other services
• Books, magazines, tickets and other hard goods.

There are four primary models for mobile payments:

• Premium SMS based transactional payments
• Direct Mobile Billing
• Mobile web payments (WAP)
• Contactless NFC (Near Field Communication)

Additionally there is a new emerging model from Haiti: direct carrier/bank co-operation.

Mobile payment is being adopted all over the world in different ways. Combined market for all types of mobile payments is expected to reach more than $600B globally by 2013, which would be double the figure as of February, 2011, while mobile payment market for goods and services, excluding contactless NFC transactions and money transfers, is expected to exceed $300B globally by 2013.

In developing countries mobile payment solutions have been deployed as a means of extending financial services to the community known as the unbanked or underbanked, which is estimated to be as much as 50% of the world's adult population, according to Financial Access' 2009 Report "Half the World is Unbanked". These payment networks are often used for micropayments. The use of mobile payments for Financial Inclusion has attracted the interest and funding of international aid foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID and MercyCorps.