The Media Online reports that real world and online commerce are moving closer together. Most of us are now familiar enough with the launch of Google Wallet, an NFC based mobile payment service. Strongly backed by several major retail players, and financial institutions, Google looks set to move firmly into the mobile payment market, using Mastercard’s Paypass technology. On top of this, Google have also presented Google Offers which, in conjunction with the Wallet, ” …allows one to redeem offers and build up loyalty points at retailers using your cell phone.” This basically acts as an outright competitor with Groupon. They also appear to have used Offers to target the massive market currently under the watch eye of M-Pesa in South Africa. However, although Google remain a favourite, they are not without their failures, so their success in this space remain to be seen.
