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What Will Replace Cash for Small Payments?

But credit cards have their limitations. They are not suitable for purchases of digital content costing less than a few dollars per transaction (micro-payments). The card system is not cost efficient for processing small payment amounts, and in many cases the minimum transaction amount is around US$10.


But


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credit cards have their limitations. They are not suitable for purchases of digital content costing less than a few dollars per transaction (micro-payments). The card system is not cost efficient for processing small payment amounts, and in many cases the minimum transaction amount is around US$10.

To sell digital content, a different payment method is required. In the early days of the internet, developers created ?e-money,? enabling consumers to purchase low-cost items online from a website supported by the e-money provider. However, there was the potential for fraud on the part of the e-money providers, to whom consumers supplied their credit-card numbers in exchange for tokens.

Many of these early attempts to create e-money mechanisms for managing micro-payment transactions schemas met with

Credit as a financial term, used in such terms as credit card, refers to the granting of a loan and the creation of debt. Any movement of financial capital is normally quite dependent on credit, which in turn is dependent on the reputation or creditworthiness of the entity which takes responsibility for the funds.
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business failure (e.g., early micro-payment vendors such as Flooz, Benz, Digicash). Even for feasible business cases, the failures often occurred because the merchants had to implement additional
In economics, business is the social science of managing people to organize and maintain collective productivity toward accomplishing particular creative and productive goals, usually to generate revenue.

The etymology of "business" refers to the state of being busy, in the context of the individual as well as the community or society. In other words, to be busy is to be doing commercially viable and profitable work.
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hardware/
Hardware is the general term that is used to describe physical artifacts of a technology.

It can be equipment such as fasteners, keys, locks, hinges, latches, corners, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts, especially when they are made of metal. In the United States, hardware has been traditionally sold in "hardware stores".
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software requirements, and the customers had to prepay. It was simply too difficult to implement, and not worth the (then) small revenue streams from the internet.

But the situation is much different now. New micro-payment services allow customers to set up online accounts tied to their chequing and savings accounts, thereby reaching a whole new segment of customers without credit cards. Micro-payment also has another future as a replacement for cash to pay for goods and services at shops, cafes, bars, libraries, printers, pharmacies,

Computer software (or simply software) is the programs and procedures that enable a computer to perform a specific task, as opposed to the physical components of the system (hardware). This includes application software such as a word processor, which enables a user to perform a task, and system software such as an operating system, which enables other software to run properly, by interfacing with hardware and with other software.
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sports centres, photocopying and laser-printing shops, as well as for bus and
A sport consists of a physical and mentally competitive activity carried out with a recreational purpose for competition, for self-enjoyment, to attain excellence, for the development of a skill, or some combination of these. A sport has physical activity, side by side competition, self-motivation and a scoring system. The difference of purpose is what characterises sport, combined with the notion of individual (or team) skill or prowess.
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taxi fares, or for any purchase in which coins are used.

What are evolving from the early attempts are three distinct micro-payment schemas:

- The Retail Model which utilizes a stored value system - The Telco Model which leverages the telcos? billing system - The Financial Model which uses a multi-application smart card with an e-purse

The Retail Model - Stored Value Systems

The principal of the stored value systems is based on the micro-payments schema: store value accounts are connected to a credit card in which a consumer has to load credits in order to make a purchases, or connected to a stored value account that accumulates payments and makes authorizations based on increments.

With a stored value system, the consumers need to register for the services online or by phone; they have to provide a credit card number and load a balance. In order for the consumer to be able to make re-loads, the system needs to remember his or her

A tax (also known as a "duty") is a financial charge or other levy imposed on an individual or a legal entity by a state or a functional equivalent of a state (e.g. tribes, secessionist movements or revolutionary movements). Taxes could also be imposed by a subnational entity.
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information. Stored value systems are common in the service industry, for example as part of the McQuick service in Canada.

Telco Model - Micro-Payment Billing

The rapid penetration of GSM handsets has already led to a situation in which more individuals carry a telephone than carry a bankcard. Additionally, people tend to have a single mobile telephone from a single operator, whereas they might have multiple bankcards.

This suggests that mobile operators have access to demographic segments not available to traditional financial institutions. By targeting the right demographic group, mobile operators can use their own billing systems to register micro-payment transactions. Pricing

Information as a concept bears a diversity of meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. Generally speaking, the concept of information is closely related to notions of constraint, communication, control, data, form, instruction, knowledge, meaning, mental stimulus, pattern, perception, and representation.

Many people speak about the Information Age as the advent of the Knowledge Age [citation needed] or knowledge society, the information society, and information technologies, and even though information science and computer
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wireless applications on a per-use or subscription basis is the best way to appeal to consumers and to give them value for their money. More importantly, separating content fees from transport fees allows carriers to keep all transport revenues while enabling a revenue stream for content providers.

The Financial Model - Smart Card with E-Purse

The smart card uses chip card technology and is designed for secure payments over the internet and mobile phones, and for micro-payments such as those made in fast-

Wireless is an old-fashioned term for a radio transceiver (a mixed receiver and transmitter device), referring to its use in wireless telegraphy early on; now the term is used to describe modern wireless connections such as in cellular networks and wireless broadband Internet.
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food restaurants, movie chains, convenience stores, vending machines, payphones, and on mass transportation and toll highways. A smart card payment scheme can manage low-value and high-value payments. The low-value payment scheme is known as e-purse, which is a cash-like, prepaid scheme, where the user has the choice of making either personalized or anonymous payments.

Purchases can be made on the internet by a smart card reader that connects to a

Food is any substance, usually comprised primarily of carbohydrates, fats, and/or proteins, that can be consumed by animals (including humans) for nutrition or pleasure. Almost all foods are of plant or animal origin. Many cultures have a recognizable cuisine, a specific set of cooking traditions, preferences, and practices.
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PC. Secure internet payments may be made just as they are in shops which use this device. The internet merchant uses a terminal which is similar to a normal shop merchant?s, and payment and collection are made in the same way.

An example of an intra-regional standard for cash is the NETS Singapore CashCard under the Visa Cash

A personal computer (PC) is usually a microcomputer whose price, size, and capabilities make it suitable for personal usage. The term was popularized by Apple Computer with the Apple II in the late-1970s and early-1980s, and afterwards by IBM with the IBM PC.
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brand, which has been implemented in Singapore, Philippines, and Korea, and recently in Thailand.

Standards are required to develop nation-wide smart card?based electronic purses that operate on a regional basis. Coupled with the possibility of location-based services driven by the mobile telephone

A brand is a collection of feelings toward an economic producer; more specifically, it refers to the concrete symbols for the brand, such as a name and design scheme. Feelings are created by the accumulation of experiences with the brand, both directly relating to its use, and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary. A brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to a company, product or service. A brand serves to create associations and expectations among products made by a producer. A brand often includes an explicit logo, fonts, color schemes, s
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network, the mobile telephone operator is well positioned to market goods and services to consumers on a one-to-one basis.

Conclusion

There are a number of challenges facing the retail banking sector today. The tradition of providing a customer with account access via a cheque or magnetic striped card is no longer the way to attract or retain ever-more-discerning consumers. Escalating card fraud and new delivery channels have changed the business landscape forever.

Micro-payments tied to a chip card could be a winner. The trends indicate that the most feasible solution?and the one increasingly embraced worldwide?seems to be the smart card, a plastic card which stores all personal data in its embedded microchip and which can be used for many functions, thereby doing away with the need to stuff wallets with many other single-function plastic cards. Another factor is the migration of credit and debit cards from magnetic strip to EMV, which allows these cards to be used seamlessly for micro-payments.

The users have already been educated. They know how to use plastic cards, and using smart cards would be the same, but common standards are important. The added advantage with a chip card is that a loyalty feature can be added to the chip, a natural extension which none of the other micro-payment methods can handle well.

There are some issues associated with a smart card schema. For example,

Computer networking is the scientific and engineering discipline concerned with communication between computer systems. Such networks involves at least two computers, which can be separated by a few centimeters (e.g. via Bluetooth) or thousands of kilometers (e.g. via the Internet). Computer networking is sometimes considered a sub-discipline of telecommunications.
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security needs to be foolproof: once a card has been breached, the cost of replacement is high. Security costs money, and so smart cards tend to be more expensive than other methods.

With the stored value system, the problem is user acceptance. Users have to manage their own accounts, and if there are many different service providers the user has many accounts to manage. In order for a real stored value system to work, the banks have to get behind it and adopt a standard which merchants can sign up for.

The success of the mobile operators will depend on the number of merchants or content providers who adopt the operators? billing systems. In order to attract customers, merchants are offering phone-customization features such as ring tones,

Security is the condition of being protected against danger or loss. In the general sense, security is a concept similar to safety. The nuance between the two is an added emphasis on being protected from dangers that originate from outside. Individuals or actions that encroach upon the condition of protection are responsible for the breach of security.
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games, screen savers, and music. It is a good market, but the real adoption will happen only when merchants can accept payments.

The retail model will see minimum success. Large retailers might develop loyal customers who would use smart cards or a stored value system offered by a financial services organization.

Over the next few years it will be interesting to see which technology will demonstrate staying power and be adopted by consumers.

A game is a structured or semi-structured recreational activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment (although sometimes for physical or vocational training). A goal that the players try to reach and a set of rules concerning what the players can or cannot do create the challenge and structure in a game, and are thus central to its definition.
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