UPDATE ON: Mobile Payments: Where is the market going?

Sometimes it is helpful to look back at where we have been to understand where we are going.  This awareness became apparent to me as I was reviewing a few of my previous blog posts and the blog posts of a fellow blogger.

As you will recall my recent posts have focused on mobile payment systems and facial recognition technologies.  In the case of mobile payment technologies, I discussed the how moving from traditional “money” to “mobile money” simply reflects the next logical step in how society uses its currency.  No major innovative breakthrough here; just a move to a more electronic form of payment.  It is interesting; however, to see competitors from apparently different industries competing in the mobile payment space.  From individual companies like Starbucks, to the mobile phone carriers themselves, to the advertising giant Google; each firm representing different sectors and each is trying to establish a foothold in the mobile payment space.  While I think it will be some time before a given market leader is crowned, it is very interesting that Starbucks’ recent mobile application has reportedly attracted over 3 million customers within a few short months.

In the case of facial recognition technologies, you will recall I discussed one way in which this technology could be used in a Customer Service 3.0 capacity.  For sure, this technology could definitely be put to good use.  However, its uses must be balanced with a healthy dose of privacy controls.

Again, looking back at my posts I made a connection that I didn’t see when originally writing either post.  In both cases, the domain of each topic can be boiled down to electronic data.  With mobile payments, currency is shifting more and more away from traditional, tangible forms of money to an electronic form of money.  With facial recognition technology a camera is used to covert an image into an electronic form and then that electronic data is associated with a real person.

Admittedly, this “electronic data” connection and its potential impact has not been completely fleshed out in my mind yet, but one word just keeps popping into my head over and over.  The word is: GOOGLE!

From the demand-side, many consumers trust Google and store a large portion of their digital life on Google’s servers.  On the supply-side, Google offers low-cost ways for businesses to get in front of potential customers; including its new Groupon-killer Google Offers.  Given that Google has strategically placed itself as a trusted intermediary for so many on both the demand-side and supply-side, it seems logical that they will become the trusted intermediary for mobile payments.

So social entrepreneurs, since so many of us rely on Google’s low/no-cost services to run our organizations, it seems logical to move in the Google direction for your mobile payment systems.  All we have to do now is wait for Google’s mobile payment offering to our respective markets.