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Recently, mobile payment and mobile commerce pundnits worldwide added two industry giants to their list of supporters - Citibank and Amazon.com.
Citibank announced a partnership with m-payment upstart, Obopay , to offer a mobile P2P (person-to-person) payment service. According to their press release , the trial is set to begin this summer and will be made available to checking account holders in the US. This is pretty big news for m-payments m-commerce supporters as one of the largest banks in the world and one of the largest m-payment startups are teaming up. Citibank may have enough coverage in the US to jumpstart the industry as a whole, in the US at least, and perhaps later in other countries.
Amazon.com, has recently launched its "TextBuyIt " service which allows its customers to shop on items listed on its website via SMS. The service is available to all Amazon Payment users who have mobile accounts with one of nine mobile operators. Along with its "TextPayMe " service, which offers mobile P2P transfer, Amazon.com is showing that it is now only leading the way with internet-based e-commerce, they are also positioning themselves to be a major player in the developing mobile commerce sphere.
In China, this news would be comparable to ICBC and Taobao.com announcing their commitment to mobile payments and mobile commerce services. Given the current flux in the market with unclear government regulations, the lack of competition in the mobile space, and a overall emphasis on online payments and online commerce instead, it seems that we are at least a few years away for any similar types of movement in China's mobile payments and mobile commerce market. For further analysis on the current state of mobile payments in China, check out the presentation I recently gave at a mobile payments forum in Beijing.
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