Australia - Digital Media - E-Payment

Micro-payment utilising e-banking has been discussed for more than 25 years. Online e-payment via telephone billing systems was launched in the 1980s; at the same time smartcards were trialled for micro-payments. However the financial institutions have been more interested in protecting their incumbent businesses than in seriously embarking on e-payment developments. PayPal has established itself as the most advanced e-payment system outside the banks. Off-deck payment systems, using mobile phones, constitute another fast-growing market, as do calling cards. But the real breakthrough will only happen when the large financial institutions decide to become more serious about e-payment.

Table of Contents :

1. Synopsis
2. E-Payment - analysis
2.1 Twenty five years in the making
2.2 Consumer resistance towards credit cards
2.3 Will EFTPOS be able to survive in the online world?
2.4 Banks will have to come to the party
2.5 Bill Express goes into liquidation
3. Micropayment Developments
3.1 NAB SMS services
4. PayPal
4.1 The P2P model: the success of PayPal
4.1.1 Google and Amazon want slice of the market
4.1.2 PayPal and MasterCard offer joint service
4.1.3 PayPal to target prepaid mobile users
4.1.4 M-Payments
4.1.5 PayPal offers mobile Internet service
4.2 URL billing (off-deck billing)
4.3 SMS person-to-person payment service
4.4 Money transfers through calling cards and mobile phones
4.5 Gift Cards
4.6 Card payments via Blackberry
5. Industry (self) regulation
6. Near-Field Communications
6.1 NAB-Visa trial
6.2 MasterCard trial
6.3 Closed systems
7. The e-tag payment infrastructure
7.1 Forget about mobile payment – Long live the e-tag
7.2 The Transurban and Telstra alliance
8. Related reports