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contactless mobile payments
1. Expl aining intErnational it application lEadErship:
Contactless Mobile Payments
Ste phe n E z e ll | No v e m b e r 2 0 0 9
3. Explaining International IT Application Leaderhip:
Contactless Mobile Payments
Stephen Ezell
ITIF
The Information Technology
& Innovation Foundation
November 2009
4. T h E I N f o r m aT I o N T E c h N o l o g y & I N N o v aT I o N f o u N d aT I o N
Executive Summary:
Contactless Mobile Payments
M
obile payments systems (e.g., using a cell phone as an elec-
tronic “wallet”) promise significantly increased economic
Mobile payments will
productivity and personal convenience. But unlike many
benefit the economy and
society by increasing
new applications that require only an enterprising firm to develop it,
productivity through the widespread deployment and adoption of mobile payments systems
enhancing operational requires action from a complex ecosystem of organizations (e.g., mo-
efficiencies, enabling a bile phone service providers, banks, retailers and others) to create a
range of innovative new mobile payments system. Because of this, only a few nations, notably
business models, and Japan and South Korea, have been able to coordinate the complex eco-
pushing distributed
system required to extensively deploy a widely used mobile payments
computing intelligence
system. In contrast, most other nations, including the United States,
into the physical world.
lag far behind. For lagging nations to take full advantage of the op-
portunities of mobile payments, they will need to develop and adopt
national mobile payments strategies.
This study examines which countries quency identification (RFID) technol-
lead in deploying and adopting contact- ogy, which enables secure wireless data
less mobile payments, finding Japan and transmission over short ranges between
South Korea the world leaders; surveys electronic devices. In combination with
the development of contactless mobile an embedded electronic wallet on a mo-
payments in the United States; analyzes bile phone or smart card, NFC makes
the non-policy and policy factors that possible a wide range of transformative
explain how leading countries attained monetary and non-monetary transac-
their leadership position; and offers a set tions. An electronic wallet is a multi-
of recommendations to policymakers, functional device possessing cash,
targeted to those in the United States information storage and transaction,
but applicable globally, who wish to pro- identification and authentication, and
mote contactless mobile payments. communication functions. Electronic
wallets empower mobile phones and
Contactless payments leverage near smart cards to fully replicate physical
field communication (NFC) technol- wallets, with the ability to make con-
ogy, a specific standard of radio-fre- tactless payments; to capture and trans-
5. mit data like transit, movie, or parking tickets; to check players—including mobile network operators (MNOs),
in to offices, schools, or airport gates; and to store and handset manufacturers, financial institutions including
present identification credentials. Whereas a decade major banks and credit card issuers, merchants, pub-
ago this technology was not quite ready—the contact- lic transit authorities, government agencies, third party
less microchips and mobile phones were not adequate, application providers, and consumers—whose success
lacking sufficient memory and processing power—the is dependent on joint action by all the players together
technology has matured substantially over the past at the same time. Everyone must act collaboratively in
decade in accordance with Moore’s Law to the point the ecosystem simultaneously, but this is not something
where electronic wallets, NFC-capable phones, and at which markets tend to be very good. As such, there
NFC-enabled point-of-sale (POS) terminals are now are two central challenges: a chicken-or-egg terminal/
ready for full-scale implementation and use. handset adoption challenge and a business model chal-
lenge.
Mobile payments are about much more than mere
credit card substitution; rather, they represent a trans- First, for consumers to demand electronic wallet-
formative digital application that will benefit con- enabled mobile phones—and thus, critically, for the
sumers, merchants, and the economy and society MNOs to require this feature from handset manufac-
at large. Mobile wallets will enhance consumer con- turers (and pay for it, since MNOs subsidize consumer
venience through the potential to replace a litany of handsets)—consumers must know that a sufficiently
artifacts of analog life designed to convey money or deployed infrastructure exists at merchant point-of-sale
information—credit cards, loyalty cards, transit cards, (POS) terminals; at fare readers in metro subways and
ID cards, keys, key fobs, tickets, passes, etc.—with a buses; at airports, parking garages, and movie theatres;
single, more powerful digital device. Moreover, mobile in automated devices such as vending machines; and in
payments will benefit the economy by driving a range a host of other places where the feature can be used.
of productivity improvements through: 1) bringing However, merchants, transit operators and others hav-
operational efficiencies to merchants, retailers, transit ing to incur the costs of deploying the NFC-enabled
authorities and others engaged in routinized monetary reader terminals are not likely to do so until a critical
or information transactions; 2) enabling a range of in- mass of users gives them confidence that their invest-
novative new business models and service offerings; ments will be repaid. This “chicken-or-egg” paradox
and 3) pushing distributed computing intelligence into exacerbates a related challenge: Each party in the eco-
the physical world. system wants a clearly articulated business model for
how it can monetize mobile payments investments
To ensure digital prosperity, nations need to support before moving forward, meaning players will not act
the development of key digital platforms such as broad- unless the financial incentives and value propositions
band, health IT, and a smart grid. Just like these digital are clearly understood beforehand. These system inter-
platforms, a national mobile payments infrastructure dependency challenges must be solved in each country
is a key platform from which a proliferation of cre- wishing to realize contactless mobile payments, and
ative applications and uses will likely develop, many of government can play a key role in helping to resolve
which are difficult to even imagine today, but which them.
will continue to create new business opportunities, in-
crease productivity, and drive economic growth. Japan and South Korea have had the most success solv-
ing these challenges; they clearly lead the world in terms
Notwithstanding the enormous potential, countries of per-capita number of contactless-enabled mobile
can’t just snap their fingers and put a mobile payments phones and POS terminals deployed, the total number
infrastructure in place or expect that because the tech- of contactless transactions, and market value of con-
nology is now ready the private sector will simply de- tactless payments. In Japan, 17 million citizens make
ploy it. The reason is that mobile payments are not like contactless mobile payments from their cell phones,
other industries where a company need only acquire with 65 million regularly using contactless smart cards,
requisite inputs, manufacture a product or design a ser- and 73 percent of mobile phones having electronic wal-
vice, and sell it on the market. Mobile payments entail a let capability. In South Korea, close to 4 million citizens
complex, system-interdependent ecosystem with many use their mobile phones to make contactless payments,
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6. with 12 million phones having the capability to do tant roles in facilitating the collaborative development
so. Thirty-three million contactless transactions are of their countries’ mobile payments ecosystems.
made daily using either smart cards or mobile phones
in South Korea. While the United States has made Japan’s government played a vital, if behind-the-
some progress in fielding NFC-enabled credit cards scenes, role in furnishing overall direction and moti-
and POS machines, virtually no mobile phones are vating the activity of key actors in Japan’s mobile pay-
equipped with NFC-enabled electronic wallets. ments marketplace, particularly in subtly pressuring
DOCOMO to lead a collaborative ecosystem in which
What explains why Japan and South Korea are so far it “would not abuse its market power.” The govern-
ahead of the United States (and other countries)? Cer- ment’s conscientious strategy to facilitate develop-
tainly some non-policy factors play a role. Both South ment of a collaborative mobile payments ecosystem
Korea and Japan are countries with gadget-loving was made easier by the fact that it owns or had owned
mobile cultures that enjoy being first movers in in- two crucial players in that ecosystem, DOCOMO and
novative mobile technologies. Certainly, their densely JR East. In South Korea, the government organized
packed urban populations, heavily reliant on mass and hosted formal meetings between carriers and
transit, provided a critical mass of captive users across banks to facilitate standards setting and itself became
which the research and development cost of contact- an early adopter of mobile payments systems because
less electronic wallet technology could be amortized it recognized that, “positive government commitment
and a market brought to scale. In both countries, the to support mobile payments is required because many
dominant mobile operator stepped forward to lead a technical issues are closely related to government poli-
vertically integrated mobile payments ecosystem— cy and strategy.” Singapore’s Infocomm Development
NTT DOCOMO in Japan and SK Telecom in South Authority (the government’s information-technology
Korea—although unlike DOCOMO’s successful in- promotion agency) formed a roundtable group of
troduction of the osaifu-keitai (mobile wallet) in 2004, banks, mobile network operators, and transit compa-
SK Telecom’s Moneta service met with middling suc- nies with the intent of developing a national plan for
cess, and seems to have been supplanted by T-Money, the introduction of NFC-enabled commerce. Recog-
launched by the public-private partnership Korea nizing that developing a fully interoperable NFC en-
Smart Card Company. vironment would generate a market size eight times
larger than a non-interoperable environment, Sin-
But while non-policy factors are important, policy gapore has elected to create a national trusted third
factors, including a conscious role for government to party to ensure full interoperability between the NFC
guide mobile payments ecosystems and a corporate services of all mobile operators and service providers.
business climate oriented towards longer-term invest- Even the United Kingdom has recognized that gov-
ment strategy and receptive to collaborative public ernment must become explicitly involved in advocat-
private partnerships, appear to play an indispensable ing for and helping to foster mobile payments capabil-
role in explaining countries’ mobile payments leader- ity. The UK Department of Transport’s 2009 Smart
ship. and Integrated Ticketing Strategy envisions universal
coverage of a smart ticketing infrastructure for all UK
Perhaps the single most important reason why Japan public transport, finding that the use of contactless
and South Korea lead the world in mobile payments ticketing technologies such as NFC could save the
is that transit authorities, card issuers, and mobile country up to £2 billion annually.
operators in those countries came together to collab-
oratively create a common electronic wallet capability Each of these countries has clearly demonstrated that
for smart cards and NFC-enabled smart phones. But governments can play critical roles in facilitating de-
private sector actors did not just decide to do this on velopment of their mobile payments ecosystems. Gov-
their own (and, by definition, the involvement of tran- ernments can play the following roles: addressing the
sit authorities signals the participation of government system interdependency challenge by facilitating devel-
agencies that either oversee or directly operate transit opment of a national mobile payments infrastructure,
administration.) Rather, governments in Japan, South particularly by ensuring that transit agencies, airports,
Korea, and up-and-comer Singapore played impor- and other institutions with a public or quasi-public
thE information tEchnology & innovation foundation | novEmbEr 20 09 page 3
7. mission are adopting open, interoperable contactless than 500,000 NFC-capable POS readers (although
payment platforms; spurring demand for mobile pay- that number represents a fraction of all POS readers in
ments, both by driving transit agencies to adopt con- the United States). However, only a handful of NFC-
tactless payments and by making government facilities capable mobile phones have been deployed (mostly in
and employees early adopters of contactless technolo- trials), and a full-fledged, phone-based mobile pay-
gies; by establishing appropriate consumer protections; ments ecosystem in the United States continues to be
and by promoting the importance of this technology stymied by the chicken-or-egg problem and the inabil-
system to economic growth and quality of life. ity of mobile network operators, financial institutions,
and merchants to mutually craft viable business mod-
While Japan deserves credit for leading the world in els palatable to all players. Fully replacing the current
innovating and adopting contactless mobile payments, POS terminal infrastructure in the United States with
in truth it did not implement them in the most optimal NFC-capable devices (credit cards or mobile wallets)
fashion. As with its broader mobile phone industry, Ja- could cost upwards of $10 billion, and a key challenge
pan has to some degree fielded a proprietary, closed is determining which parties should bear the cost of
standard mobile payments model. While Sony’s FeliCa deploying this infrastructure. Moreover, there is a real
contactless integrated circuit (IC) chip technology un- risk that the United States will evolve into an NFC cul-
derpins the buyer and seller devices, the different elec- de-sac whereby the system is optimized for payments
tronic money (digital cash) systems such as Suica, Edy, only, but not for the much more functional and eco-
and Nanaco are not interoperable, requiring merchants nomically important mobile wallet (e.g., a device that
to deploy proprietary POS reader terminals to accept can store information other than money and process
the different electronic money systems; some conve- transactions other than financial).
nience stores and retail merchants have as many as
four reader terminals at check-out stations to support The challenge the United States and many other na-
the various types of electronic money customers may tions face is that all actors in the mobile payments
use. This is akin to the state of email before Web-based ecosystem are each pursuing their own interests and
email, when services like CompuServe, Prodigy, and concentrating on maximizing their own return, thus
MCI Mail dominated, when it was only possible to ex- making it more difficult for a true infrastructure plat-
change email if both the sender and receiver both used form to emerge. For example, merchants and transit
the same email service provider. In other words, Japan operators focus only on assessing their potential return
does not have a fully open, interoperable system where on investment from deploying contactless infrastruc-
any electronic money service (whether pre-paid stored ture, but each merchant or transit agency that installs
value or post-paid credit) operating on a smart card or an NFC-enabled POS terminal benefits not only them-
mobile phone can interact with any reader terminal. In selves but every other participant in the ecosystem.
this regard, a better model is Singapore’s, which seeks In other words investments in any part of the mobile
to deploy a completely open, interoperable mobile pay- payments ecosystem can create what economists call
ments system. The United States is making some prog- a network externality, whereby the benefits of the in-
ress in this area because the NFC standard is interoper- vestment do not accrue fully to the party making the
able. But it will be important for the United States to investment.
ensure that the mobile wallet standard be interoperable
with the NFC reader standard, so that individuals can Transit operators can play a key role in ensuring the
use their mobile phones and all the applications stored evolution of an open, interoperable, multi-function
in them just like they can use their credit cards at any system. In Japan and South Korea, transit authorities,
NFC-enabled reader in the United States. card issuers, and mobile operators came together to
collaboratively create a common electronic wallet capa-
As noted, the United States has made some progress bility for smart cards and NFC-capable smart phones.
in deploying contactless mobile payments. As of Oc- And by creating a large number of places where con-
tober 2009, more than 100 million branded contact- sumers can use their mobile wallets early on, transit
less credit cards have been issued by U.S. card issuers agencies in those countries helped build a market for
and 140,000 merchant locations have deployed more NFC-enabled phones.
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8. Unfortunately, in many nations, including the United storage and transaction, identification, and communi-
States, transit agencies tend to think like private sector cation function. But having single purpose cards would
merchants trying to maximize their own return and be equivalent to broadband service providers building
ignoring positive network externalities. But because broadband pipes that only allowed their content to flow
they have a public function to them, they should also on them. The risk of going down the contactless credit
focus on the externalities generated by deploying con- card route (where most of the progress in contactless
tactless fare readers, for doing so dramatically expands mobile payments in the United States has been made to
the range of venues where consumers can use their date) is that it is a single purpose device, whereas what
NFC-enabled phones, spurring consumer demand for is needed is a multipurpose device that can do more
the technology. But each of the metropolitan transit than just process e-cash transactions.
agencies in the United States has been confronting de-
cisions about whether to implement contactless fare To maximize the benefits to the American economy
payment systems on their own. The risk is that in the and to American consumers, mobile payments needs
absence of federal leadership, transit agencies will ei- to evolve in an open, interoperable, multi-purpose
ther choose not to deploy contactless fare payment sys- fashion. The risk in the United States is that mobile
tems or will choose to deploy closed-loop, proprietary payments will evolve in the direction of closed- and or
fare payment systems that are not interoperable with single-purpose platforms. Thus, the government holds
those of other transit agencies (as with Boston’s Char- a key role to ensure the marketplace evolves in this di-
lie Card) or with NFC reader standards in general, and rection, because if a country goes down the path of a
the opportunity to realize network externalities from limited and non-interoperable systems, it is very dif-
contactless mobile payments in U.S. mass transit will ficult to change course.
be lost or delayed.
In summary, mobile payments represent a critical in-
Moreover, there has been a standoff between banks, formation technology system for the U.S. economy to
which are migrating credit cards with customer in- realize. It is not at all clear that market forces alone will
formation stored on a magnetic stripe to the new mi- get the United States there, or produce the completely
croprocessor-based contactless NFC standard where open, multifunctional system that we need, certainly
customer information is encrypted, and the mass tran- not anytime soon. Therefore, applying lessons from
sit operators, who would like access to the memory the leading countries, there appears to be a strategic
resources on NFC smart cards but who installed an role for the federal government to play in facilitating
earlier, proprietary version of contactless technology. and accelerating the arrival of mobile payments in the
Thus far, banks have resisted opening up smart card United States. Accordingly, this report makes the fol-
microprocessor resources to meet transit operators’ re- lowing recommendations:
quirements for scratch pad memory access on which
they can calculate passenger fare and manage custom- reate
C
an inter-government mobile payments
ers’ outstanding transit subscription balances. Even working group and private-sector advisory
successful implementations of an open-loop outside council that would collaborate to introduce, by
network system, such as the Utah Transit Authority’s, mid-2010, a strategy for spurring the deploy-
which allows passengers to use their regular credit ment of an open, interoperable mobile wallet. In
cards for contactless fare payment on UTA’s buses and the United States, this means that the Chief Tech-
light rail, required the system to be custom-engineered nology Officer should create: 1) a mobile payments
between the credit card-issuing banks and the transit working group, whose members would include the
authority. Federal Communications Commission, Federal
Trade Commission, Treasury Department, Depart-
This points to a central challenge for mobile payments ment of Transportation, National
in the United States: no party, neither the banks nor Telecommunications and Information Administra-
the transit agencies, has an interest in creating a fully tion, National Institute of Standards and Technology,
open, interoperable multi-function smart card or mo- the General Services Administration, and other
bile wallet device that possesses a cash, information agencies as appropriate, along with 2) an advisory
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9. council from the private sector, which together 2. Provide funding for pilot programs deploy-
would develop, by mid-2010, a U.S. strategy for ing NFC infrastructure in public venues.
spurring the deployment of an open, interoperable The mobile wallet strategy roadmap should in-
mobile wallet platform. clude funding for pilot programs to implement
NFC infrastructure in the aforementioned pub-
The government’s role should not be to take the lead licly or semi-publicly operated or managed envi-
in specifying NFC standards—private markets and ronments.
collaborative standards-setting consortium such as
the NFC Forum are driving this and should con- 3. Ensure senior government leaders highlight
tinue to do so. Rather, much as the Federal Com- the benefits of contactless mobile payments.
munications Commission’s National Broadband Senior leaders at the FCC, Departments of
Taskforce is developing a comprehensive strategy Commerce and Transportation, and other agen-
for how the United States can achieve ubiquitous cies should provide vision and leadership and
broadband deployment, a national mobile wallet/ speak openly about the transformative potential
mobile payments strategy would craft a roadmap of contactless mobile payments in the United
considering issues such as: how federal, state, and States.
local governments will go contactless; how contact-
less payments can be enabled in all metropolitan 4. Deploy contactless payments infrastructure,
transit authorities; how such payments can be im- including NFC-enabled electronic wal-
plemented in public and quasi-public venues such let phones and NFC-enabled POS readers
as airports, street parking meters, parking garages, throughout government agencies:
toll booths, and other locations throughout the
country; and how mobile payments can be used for General Services Administration
The
functions such as food stamps, funds through the should commit to installing contactless
Women, Infants and Children program and other POS terminals in all cafeterias, parking ga-
federal benefit programs. rages, and other cash facilities it directly
operates in federal agencies and facilities,
including Department of Defense facili-
overnments
G
should assume a leadership role
ties.
in promoting and adopting mobile payments.
Federal, state, and local governments should be cre- Government identification programs such
ative in using systems and funding to spur as the Department of Defense’s Common
deployment of contactless mobile payments. The Access Card and the Transportation Work-
government should: er Identification Credential (TWIC) should
allow electronic wallet applications to be
1. Require that mass transit agencies receiv- housed on the card.
ing federal funding deploy open-loop out-
and local governments using POS
State
side network payment systems. In the current
terminals to process payments for servic-
reauthorization of the Surface Transportation
es—such as for obtaining marriage licenses,
Act, Congress should require that any transit
parking permits, drivers licenses, etc.—
authority receiving federal public transporta-
should deploy NFC-enabled POS
tion funding that has a contactless fare payment
terminals, enabling citizens to make con-
system move to an open-loop outside payments
tactless payments.
network. That is, Congress should require tran-
sit agencies receiving federal funding to deploy rticulate
A
clear consumer protections for mo-
NFC-enabled contactless fare payment systems bile payments. For mobile payments to succeed,
interoperable with those of other transit agen- consumers must be assured they maintain the same
cies throughout the country. level of recourse in case of disputes with merchants
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10. or digital theft. Consumer protections should be ex- esist
R
the urge to regulate RFID technologies,
tended to all providers of mobile payment services. including near field communication. Given the
The United States should actively engage in ongoing importance of NFC technology and its inherent se-
OECD discussions to harmonize consumer payment curity, it is important that policymakers not give in
protections amongst its OECD member countries. to pressure to regulate NFC, in particular under the
broader guise of regulating RFID technologies,
ddress
A
legitimate security and privacy con- which should not be regulated either.
cerns, but recognize mobile wallets are likely to
be more secure than physical wallets. Policymak- ncourage
E
competition and do not favor en-
ers should not be swayed by the claims of some trenched interests. The rapid evolution of mobile
privacy advocates who are likely both to question the devices and applications as well as network and in-
privacy and security of mobile payments and to ac- formation technologies has engendered an incredibly
tively denounce proactive government efforts to fertile period of mobile payments innovation and
develop a national payments strategy. NFC-enabled activity. Many new firms with innovative business
phones offer defenses not generally available to cards, models and service propositions have emerged to
including enabling consumers to keep applications provide novel platforms for remote mobile pay-
locked with a PIN or other passcode or with a fin- ments, such as domestic money transfers,
gerprint or other biometric tools. Moreover mobile international remittances, and even targeted micro-
operators can remotely shut down all applications on lending. Regulators should not give in to incumbent
an NFC phone should subscribers report their de- business interests that oppose the emergence of in-
vice lost or stolen. novative new services.
Policymakers should also recognize that contact- Likewise, policymakers should not give in to en-
less mobile transactions effected between a mobile trenched interests who would resist new automated
phone with a secure integrated circuit smart chip or self service technologies that NFC makes pos-
and an NFC-enabled payment terminal are likely sible, even if it means certain service jobs may be
to be much more secure than either swiping the automated, for these technologies introduce effi-
credit card through a magnetic card reader, or sim- ciencies that redound to the benefit of consumers
ply handing the credit card to a third party. This is and the economy as a whole.
because in a contactless transaction (whether origi-
nated by a smart card or mobile phone) both the IC ctively
A
work with international NFC standards
chip and the payment terminal authenticate one an- setting bodies. Federal bodies involved in trade
other and, critically, a unique identifier is generated policy, including the National Institute of Standards
to validate each transaction. If that unique identifier and Technology and the United States Trade Repre-
is somehow stolen, it cannot be used to execute a sentative should support the development of
subsequent or future transaction. Moreover, no pub- interoperable international standards for mobile
licized real-world attacks on contactless bankcards payments, which will inure to the benefit of both
have emerged in the United States or elsewhere since domestic device manufacturers looking to export to
the payments industry has introduced the technol- global markets and consumers seeking convenient
ogy. payment experiences alike.
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11. T h E I N f o r m aT I o N T E c h N o l o g y & I N N o v aT I o N f o u N d aT I o N
Explaining International IT Leadership:
Contactless Mobile Payments
T
he ever-expanding capabilities of mobile phones have made
Mobile payments will
them increasingly powerful platforms for an impressively
benefit the economy and
wide range of commercial and financial transactions. Mobile
society by increasing
productivity through phones have evolved from simple personal communication devices
enhancing operational to become both platforms for commerce and indispensable “lifestyle
efficiencies, enabling a infrastructure” that enhances productivity, facilitates financial trans-
range of innovative new actions, and makes life more convenient and efficient. In the most
business models, and advanced countries, consumers use their phones as multifunctional
pushing distributed electronic wallets to pay public transit or taxi fares; to make purchases
computing intelligence
from merchants, restaurants, convenience stores, and automated de-
into the physical world.
vices; and to check in at airports, hotels, and schools; and for a host of
other functions.
This report examines which countries Understanding Mobile
lead the world in deploying and adopt- payMents
ing contactless mobile payments sur- What are Mobile payments?
veys, finding Japan and South Korea Mobile payments are perhaps the most
in the lead; surveys the development important form of mobile commerce,
of contactless mobile payments in the a term defined broadly as “commer-
United States; and analyzes the non- cial or financial transactions mediated
policy and policy factors that explain through mobile phones or other hand-
how the leading countries attained held electronic devices.”1 Mobile com-
their leadership position in contact- merce is exploding worldwide, with
less payments. It concludes with a set research firm Juniper predicting that,
of recommendations to policymakers, by 2011, the global value of all com-
targeted to those in the United States mercial or financial transactions effect-
but applicable globally, wishing to pro- ed through mobile phones will exceed
mote contactless mobile payments in $587 billion.2 By 2013, Juniper predicts
their country. that more than 2 billion mobile sub-
12. scribers worldwide will have used their mobile phones Figure 1: Contactless Mobile payment
for contactless mobile payments, mobile banking, or
over-the-air person-to-person payments.3
The following taxonomy describes the broad universe
of commercial and financial transactions that mobile
phones enable:4
I. Mobile financial services, including: contactless
mobile payments, peer-to-peer mobile
payments, and mobile banking.5
1. Contactless mobile payments—also called
“touchless” or “proximity” payments—
leverage radio frequency identification
technology (RFID) technology, particularly Mobile purchases through cell phones—particularly
through a technology standard called near of digital content including music, games, e-books,
field communication (NFC), to enable mobile digital avatars, and virtual worlds—has become wide-
subscribers to make contactless payments spread across all developed countries, and especially
simply by waving their mobile phone (or a prevalent in Asian countries. Mobile sales of digital
smart card) directly in front of NFC-enabled goods in Japan alone constitute a $4.84 billion market,
terminals, such as merchant’s point-of- and well over $1 billion in South Korea. Research firm
sale (POS) terminals, subway turnstiles, or Ovum estimates the global value of “online shopping”
automated devices such as vending machines via mobile phones will come to approximately $20 bil-
(Figure 1).
lion in 2009.7 Notwithstanding the impressive volume
Contactless mobile payments are exploding of digital content mobile subscribers are downloading
globally, growing in value from $3 billion in to their phones, this report focuses on the transforma-
2007 to approximately $10 billion in 2009, and tive capability of mobile phones to act as platforms
expected to surpass $52 billion by 2012.6 for enabling remote contactless financial, commercial,
and information-based transactions.
2. Peer-to-peer payments including funds
transfer or domestic and international money types of Mobile payments applications
remittances.
Near-field communication technology enables a range
3. Mobile banking, including both of monetary and non-monetary transactions. Embed-
informational—alerts and account balance ding electronic wallets on mobile phones (or smart
inquiries—and transactional—mobile bill cards) transforms them into multifunctional devices
payment or equity trading—components. that can execute contactless payment transactions,
serve as a store of information and value, house au-
II. Mobile shopping and mobile-facilitated thentication or identification credentials, and exchange
purchases of digital content, data, or services, data with similarly enabled devices.
where purchases are made via mobile phones either
through traditional Internet website channels (e.g. This report identifies three primary types of con-
buying a product off the Amazon or eBay Web site tactless transactions that electronic wallets enable: 1)
using one’s mobile phone instead of computer) or
transactions involving only the exchange of payment
via direct downloads of digital content, such as
music or ringtones. Purchases can also be mobile- information; 2) transactions involving both the ex-
facilitated such as making a purchase from a change of payment details and information/data per-
computer at an online retailer or using the mobile tinent to the transaction; and 3) storing and transmit-
phone for authentication and the mobile operator’s ting identification and authentication credentials. (See
bill for invoicing and collection. Table 1.)
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13. The first category includes transactions where the mo- to manage room access: the hotel sends an electronic
bile phone (or smart card) is simply used to transmit code to the guest’s cell phone that permits access to a
payment details for purchases of stand-alone goods or specific hotel room for the duration of the reservation,
services, such as buying a soda from a vending ma- and the guest need simply touch his/her cell phone to
chine, or purchasing items from merchants such as the door’s reader, obviating the need for physical keys
retailers, convenience stores, or fast-food restaurants. or keys cards. Using electronic wallets for identification
There is not an information component to these trans- purposes will further accelerate as biometric verifica-
actions required beyond the payment instructions. tion is added to existing password authentication fea-
These types of contactless transactions will increas- tures of mobile phones.
ingly replace cash for low-value micropayments (trans-
actions worth less than $25.)
Where electronic wallets (whether on mobile phones Mobile payments represent a digital platform technolog y that
or smart cards) become far more powerful is their abil- enables the creation of new and innovative applications limited
ity to store, process, and exchange transaction-related
only by the creativity of organizations seeking to use them.
information, enabling the mobile phone to replace a
litany of tickets, passes, keys, and cards. For example,
theater-goers in South Korea purchase movie tickets
via their mobile phones, receive the “tickets” elec- And the important thing about this “platform” tech-
tronically, and swipe their phone across a reader at the nology is that new and creative applications are only
theatre entrance, eliminating the need to hand a paper limited by the creativity of the organizations that seek
ticket stub to a greeter. At parking garages in Japan, to use them. For example, the Korean Salvation Army
drivers swipe their phones across readers as they enter saw this technology platform and realized it could digi-
and exit the garage and an application in the electronic tally transform the way it collected money at Christ-
wallet records duration of stay and transmits payment mas. Now, next to the traditional red kettle and bell-
information at the exit gate, eliminating the need for ringing Santa-costumed volunteers, the Korean Salva-
both paper tickets and attendants to process the trans- tion Army has introduced digital donation screens, at
action. Likewise, airline passengers in Japan receive which donors simply wave their mobile phone across
their reservation “tickets” electronically to the mobile the screen and the specified amount is deducted from
phone and check in by tapping their phone to read- one’s T-money account (a digital cash service popular in
ers at the flight gate (and at security check in). Taxi South Korea) and paid to the Salvation Army—leaving
passengers can pay the fare and receive an electronic donors with no excuse for not having change in their
receipt they can submit to their company’s account- pockets, reducing the risk of money being siphoned
ing department for reimbursement. Critically, this in- off by the volunteer, and reducing the cost of handling
formation storage and processing aspect of electronic the cash.8 Another such application would be for the
wallets also allows transit agencies to issue contactless government to deliver food stamps via mobile phones;
smart cards (or mobile phone applications) capable of likely to be more convenient as many individuals who
both calculating passenger fare based on journey taken lack bank accounts actually have mobile phones. It’s
and storing subscription account balances. likely that as this platform technology becomes more
widely available around the world, the number of in-
As an authentication application, electronic wallets can novative applications will blossom.
store identification information, replacing the current
generation of key fobs and smart cards to allow indi- Though not directly a mobile payments application, it
viduals to check in/sign in to schools, hotels, health should be noted that NFC technology allows electronic
clubs, offices, and apartment buildings with one de- devices to interconnect and exchange information with
vice, often a cell phone. For example, in South Ko- one another over short distances, just as infrared or Blu-
rean, Japanese, and Swedish schools and universities, etooth technology before it. For example, Apple is cur-
students effortlessly swipe their phones across readers rently prototyping a next generation iPhone allowing
outside classroom doors to register their attendance. customers to wirelessly sync their iPods and iPhones to
In New Zealand, hotels are using NFC technology their iMac using RFID technology.9
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14. table 1: Classifying Contactless Mobile payments applications
payment transactions payment and information-based transactions authentication/id
obile
M
payments replace cash/ ransactions
T
involving exchange of both uthentication/identifica-
A
credit cards payment details and information pertain- tion credentials are stored
ing to the transaction. Data component is in the mobile phone’s elec-
o
N
information component re-
stored on mobile phone’s electronic wal- tronice wallet
quired beyond exchanging
let.
payment details lectronic
E
wallet can be
nables
E
mobile phones to replace cards, used as ID to check into:
ncludes
I
contactless payments for
tickets, passes, etc.
goods and services purchased Schools
from: nables
E
personalized merchandising and Hotels
advertising Health Clubs
Box Retailers
Big
Office Complexes
Quick Service Restaurants
ses
U
mobile phone’s electronic wallet to
Apartment
Convenience Stores
manage, update, pay for, or check into:
Buildings
Taxis
Public Transit (Tickets)
Digital Donations
A irport Check-in (Tickets)
Automated Devices
Parking Garages (Tickets)
Vending Machines
Movie Theatres (Tickets)
Parking Meters
Sporting Events (Tickets)
Laundry Machines
Concerts/Museums/Parks
Toll Booths
(Tickets)
Personalized Advertising or
Merchandising
Loyalty cards
cards
Gift
Coupons
benefits of Contactless Mobile payments schools or libraries), credit cards, and cash with a sin-
Contactless mobile payments represent a transfor- gle device capable of checking in to office complexes,
mative application that will bring a wide range of apartment buildings, or health clubs; boarding planes
benefits to consumers, businesses, and the economy and trains; and paying for everything from mass tran-
and society at large. Consumers will benefit from en- sit and taxis to parking meters and vending machines.
hanced convenience and the ability to opt-in to per- Indeed, much of daily life is consumed with the ex-
sonalized advertising or merchandising campaigns. change of mundane information—key codes, dollars,
At a broader level, contactless payments will drive time stamps, tickets, passes, ID credentials, etc.—all
increases in productivity, the central source of eco- of which could be automated, streamlined, or even
nomic growth, through three channels: 1) bringing obviated by leveraging mobile phones as a repository
operational efficiencies to merchants, retailers, and for both information and money. Consumers will
transit authorities; 2) enabling a range of innovative also enjoy faster transaction processing speeds in re-
new business models and service offerings; and 3) tail and transit environments. Organizations will be
pushing distributed computing intelligence into the able to automate these kinds of transactions, saving
physical world. significant amounts of money, which can be passed
on to consumers. Finally, contactless transactions
Using mobile phones as electronic wallets will allow reduce the burden—and security risk—of carrying
consumers to replace the multitude of keys, key fobs, cash and having to fumble for loose change or bills to
loyalty cards, various types of ID cards (such as for make small purchases.
thE information tEchnology & innovation foundation | novEmbEr 20 09 page 11
15. For businesses, contactless payments enable increased wallets make possible automated transactions that ei-
operational efficiency in retail and transit environ- ther eliminate the need for personnel to manually pro-
ments, whether by accelerating transaction speeds, cess tickets and cash or that empower employees to use
reducing the costs inherent in handling cash-based their time more productively by automating routinized
transactions, or decreasing the need for ticketing or activities. In fact, information technology (IT) is mov-
checkout agents at the point-of-sale (POS). Transac- ing from a phase where many of the benefits of IT have
tions using contactless technology are as much as 40 come from “big boxes,” like servers or computers, to
percent faster than those made with credit or debit cards a phase where the benefits come more from pushing
and 55 percent faster than those made with cash.10 In distributed computing intelligence into the field. Pre-
mass transit environments, Japan’s JR East Railway re- viously, most of the productivity gains from IT came
ports that moving from swiped magnetic stripe cards from large IT implementations, such as enterprise
to contactless smart cards or mobile phones reduces resource planning or automated order entry systems,
transaction processing time from 700 to 200 millisec- which automated routinized activities employees had
onds. Japan’s All Nippon Airways found that using performed in desktop or office environments.
mobile phones at check-in cuts transaction time per
passenger from 50 to 8 seconds.11 South Korea’s banks
have found that mobile transactions cost one-fifth Electronic wallets have the potential to replace a litany of
of face-to-face transaction costs.12 And Washington,
D.C.’s transit authority found that migration to elec- artifacts of analog life that consumers carry in their wallet to
tronic fare payments reduced staff by approximately exchange money or information—credit cards, loyalty cards,
15 percent over a 5-year period.13
transit cards, ID cards, keys, key fobs, tickets, passes, etc.—
Contactless transactions open up entirely new chan- with a single device.
nels for retailers to introduce opt-in personalized ad-
vertising or merchandising campaigns. For example,
customers entering a mall could swipe their mobile But the next wave of IT will be about pushing mobile
phones across a NFC-enabled poster that would in- computing, sensing, and intelligence out into the phys-
form them about sales or promotions at their favorite ical world. Before, transactions in the field required
stores and even provide them with targeted coupons people because there was little connectivity to technol-
or discounts. In Japan and South Korea, advertising ogy platforms on the back-end (e.g., no “big box” in
posters (whether in subways or on the street) have the field). But mobile phones bring computing into the
embedded chips allowing mobile subscribers to wave field, acting as sensors that can connect physical infra-
their phones across the poster to learn more about— structure to the virtual world. By enabling fully elec-
or directly purchase—the advertised good or service. tronic transactions, contactless payments eliminate the
In those countries, one need simply walk up to a poster need for cash or physical information exchange (e.g.,
pitching the latest Cirque de Soleil show, Harry Potter tickets or passes) at the point-of-sale, removing the
movie, or Bruce Springsteen concert, wave the mobile need for attendants to staff gates at parking garages,
phone across the poster, and purchase tickets imme- movie theaters, tool booths, sporting venues, airports,
diately. In essence, NFC technology enables a world etc. For example, if parking meters in the United
of secure end-to-end commerce and connectivity in States were NFC-enabled, not only could drivers pay
which consumers can access and pay for physical and electronically via their mobile phones, but because the
digital services anywhere, at any time, using any de- meters would no longer be collecting coins, the need
vice.14 An NFC-based mobile transaction infrastruc- for someone to physically go from parking meter to
ture will also spur the creation of more self-service parking meter to collect them would be eliminated. If
opportunities and business models as transactions can teachers didn’t have to spend two to three minutes of
increasingly be completed through automated devic- class time taking attendance because students instead
es. signed in using their NFC-enabled phones, they could
save 30 hours or more a year on roll call, freeing them
The productivity story then is not simply about replac- to focus on teaching and improving educational out-
ing credit cards with mobile phones; rather electronic comes.15
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16. box 1: Key Underlying Mobile payMents teChnologies and aCtors
Near Field Communication (NFC) Technology. Near field communication (NFC) is a short-range wireless connectivity technolo-
gy that provides intuitive, simple, and safe communication between electronic devices. NFC is a type of radio frequency identification
(RFID) technology, and the NFC standard is an extension of the ISO 14443 RFID proximity-card standard. NFC operates at 13.56
MHz and transfers data at up to 424 Kbits/second. Communication occurs when two NFC-compatible devices are brought within
four centimeters of one another. NFC communicates via magnetic field induction, where two loop antennas are located within each
other’s near field, effectively forming an air-core transformer. NFC can operate in one of two modes: passive or active.16
Mobile phones, contactless smart cards, and contactless credit (or debit) cards can communicate data via near field communication
technology to NFC-enabled payment terminals—including merchant’s point-of-sale terminals, vending machines, parking meters, rail
or subway turnstiles, airline check-in gates, etc.—to process contactless transactions. Importantly, NFC-based contactless transactions
clear (that is, they are settled financially) over existing credit card or bank payment networks, not over the wireless network on which
the phone operates.
Contactless payment technologies in Japan and South Korea also use RFID technology, but in the main, use RFID standards that are
not currently interoperable with NFC standards. Japan uses FeliCa, a proprietary standard. South Korea uses a passive, as opposed to
active, version of RFID that operates in card emulation mode only (no reader mode or peer-to-peer mode), and is not interoperable
with NFC.
FeliCa. Sony developed the FeliCa integrated circuit chip for contactless payments made via smart cards in 1988. In 2004, Sony
teamed with NTT DOCOMO (“DOCOMO”) to embed FeliCa chips into the electronic wallets of mobile phones, enabling contact-
less payments in Japan.
The NFC Forum. The NFC Forum, a standards-setting consortium founded in 2004 that includes 140 members from all areas of
the NFC ecosystem, drives the development of globally-interoperable NFC standards. As of Q4 2009, the NFC Forum has finalized
11 specifications enabling a basic level of device interoperability.17
Smart Cards. Smart cards—whether public transit fare cards, credit cards, or stored value (i.e., debit) cards—use embedded micro-
chips, also known as integrated circuits (IC) chips, to electronically store data. Smart card technology can be contact-based or contact-
less. In contact-based scenarios, customers insert or swipe cards through a card reader. Contactless smart cards have an embedded
antenna and short-range radio frequency identification (RFID) computer chip, which transfers data via radio waves, enabling contact-
less, or “touchless” remote transactions.
Electronic (or “Digital”) Wallets. An electronic wallet is a mobile phone feature that can centrally and simultaneously store multiple
applications managing customer account/transaction information with financial providers, public transit agencies, or third party enti-
ties such as health clubs, schools, and office or apartment buildings. For example, the electronic wallets of mobile phones in South
Korea can simultaneously manage up to 100 different applications, ranging from electronic money to personal IDs.
Electronic Money (or “Digital Cash”). Electronic money systems, such as Japan’s Edy or South Korea’s T-money, appear in the
form of either pre-paid, or “stored value,” smart cards or as an application in the electronic wallet of a mobile phone. For example,
with Edy, customers prepay (via a credit card or by debiting a bank account) to purchase Edy digital cash that is loaded onto their smart
card or mobile phone. When customers make purchases, in lieu of using cash, funds are deducted from the stored digital cash value
on the smart card or the mobile phone.
Trusted Service Manager (TSM). A trusted service manager is a third party intermediary that manages downloads of applications
to a phone’s electronic wallet. The TSM helps service providers securely distribute and manage contactless services for their customers
using the networks of mobile operators. However, the TSM does not participate in actual contactless transactions using NFC devices.18
The key functions of the TSMs include interconnecting with mobile network operators (MNOs) and application service providers,
enrolling new users, updating user interfaces, managing customer databases, managing application lifecycles, managing value-added
services such as ticket reloading and branding, and guaranteeing end-to-end security. Examples of TSMs include FeliCa Networks in
Japan and VivoTech in the United States. In Singapore, the government’s Information Development Authority has taken on the role
of setting up a national trusted service manager (there called a trusted third party.)
Peer-to-peer (or “person-to-person”) payments. Mobile peer-to-peer payments use the SMS (simplified messaging service) feature
of mobile phones to send text messages with payment instructions to third parties, such as the bank accounts of customers, suppliers,
or family members. Peer-to-peer payments have become incredibly popular in developing countries through service providers such as
M-Pesa in Kenya and Smart Communications in the Philippines.
thE information tEchnology & innovation foundation | novEmbEr 20 09 page 13
17. This all has the benefit of allowing organizations to de- erators, handset manufacturers, financial institutions
ploy resources more productively, increasing customer including major banks and credit card issuers, com-
convenience and generating cost savings for consum- mercial retailers and merchant stores, public transit
ers and taxpayers, while eliminating routinized, mo- authorities, government agencies, and, of course, the
notonous tasks or jobs, freeing the individuals who customer. Mobile payments thus represent a complex
once staffed them to pursue more-rewarding, higher- ecosystem with many players whose success depends
skilled, and higher-paying jobs. If the United States is on joint action at the same time by all the players to-
to continue enhancing its productivity, thus generating gether. All parties have to figure out a way to act col-
increases in growth, wages, and standards of living, it laboratively at the same time, and this is something
must deploy technologies like mobile payments that markets are not very good at, especially U.S. markets.
enhance productivity throughout the economy.
A national contactless payments infrastructure sup- Mobile payments are characterized by a chicken-or-egg problem:
ports other social objectives, including more efficient
consumers won’t demand NFC-enabled phones until they know
governance and helping the environment by eliminat-
ing paper waste. A United Kingdom study found that a sufficient number of POS terminals exist where they can use
going contactless in mass transit ticketing could save them; merchants won’t deploy the infrastructure until a critical
the country £2 billion annually.19 Japan has found that
the amount of paper cash in circulation in the econo- mass of users justifies the cost of doing so.
my has appreciably decreased since 2004, when mobile
phones with electronic wallets were introduced.20 Fi-
Mobile payments are marked by a system interde-
nally, eliminating the need for paper, whether of rail,
pendency (the classic “chicken-or-egg”) conundrum,
movie, or airline tickets (or even paper currency itself)
which each country must solve: For consumers to de-
saves money and benefits the environment.
mand cell phones with embedded electronic wallets—
In summary, a system whereby mobile payments and and thus, critically, for the mobile network operators to
transactions leverage NFC technology is a critical require this feature from the handset manufacturers—
emerging digital infrastructure technology platform consumers must know that a sufficiently deployed mo-
that all countries will need to have. Once a country has bile payments infrastructure exists at merchants’ POS
an open, interoperable mobile payments infrastructure terminals, at fare readers in metro subways and buses,
in place, it is akin to having broadband, cellular net- in toll booths along highways, at airports, in parking
works, or a smart grid installed. And like these digi- garages, in automated devices like vending machines
tal infrastructure platforms, mobile payments exhibit and parking meters, and in other places where the fea-
similar network effects: as additional NFC-enabled ture can be used. Merchants and transit operators, for
mobile phones and devices come on the market, they their part, are not likely to deploy NFC-enabled pay-
increase the value of other similarly enabled devices. ment terminals until a critical mass of users gives them
Over time, a proliferation of creative applications are confidence that their investments in such technology
likely to develop from the mobile payments technology will be repaid. And indeed, determining who should
platform, many of which are difficult to even imagine pay to finance the widespread deployment of the NFC
today, all of which will continue to create new busi- mobile payments infrastructure (particularly reader
ness opportunities, increase productivity, and drive terminals at merchants and mass transit facilities) is
economic growth. one of the greatest challenges to mobile payments.
One industry observer estimated it could cost upwards
of $10 billion to fully replace the current POS terminal
the Mobile payments Challenge infrastructure in the United States (alone) with NFC-
Mobile payments are considerably different from the capable devices.21
classic “widget” industry in which a company need
only acquire the requisite inputs, manufacture its prod- The system interdependency challenge makes it ex-
ucts, and sell them on the open market. For a country tremely difficult for all parties in a multi-sided market
to successfully deploy mobile payments it must engage to craft profitable business models. Each party needs
a wide range of actors, including: mobile network op- to know that incoming revenues (or value, from the
thE information tEchnology & innovation foundation | novEmbEr 20 09 page 14
18. consumer perspective) will justify the costs of their in- tions. Year-end 2008 (or most recently available) data
vestments. Therefore, each party must have clarity as are cited wherever possible. Historical data are cited
to its role in the mobile payments value chain and how in most cases, though the report also makes use of
it intends to monetize it. A key sticking point is the forward-looking, anticipatory estimates of future mar-
issue of, “Who owns the customer in mobile transac- ket sizes for countries’ mobile payments markets. The
tions?” Wireless network operators believe they own study relies extensively on facts and figures provided
the mobile subscriber relationship, credit card issuing by representatives or publications of foreign govern-
banks insist they own the financial relationship with ments and thus on the implied accuracy and validity of
customers, and retailers contend that they own the these resources.
customer relationship at the point of purchase. Each
entity desires to have the leading place in the mobile The assessment of country leaders was also informed
payments ecosystem and dominant role in the value by consultations with over two dozen experts in the
chain, and as a result the market has remained still- mobile commerce and payments field, who were asked
born. As Pragnesh Shah, former CEO of mobile pay- to rank the world leaders in mobile payments and
ments firm Mobilians, states, “The barriers to mobile provide both context for and a historiography of the
payments, in the United States or elsewhere, are not evolution of mobile payments ecosystems in leading
technological nor regulatory; rather they pertain to the countries.
business model.”22 Of course, all countries looking to
deploy mobile payments must solve these complex sys-
tem interdependency and business model ecosystem Mobile payments exhibit classic network externalities; adding an
challenges in their own way.
additional NFC-enabled phone or POS terminal device to the
And in analyzing the countries leading the world in network amplifies the value of previously deployed devices and
mobile payments, it becomes apparent that some forc-
makes the case more compelling for further deployment.
ing function—such as government facilitating the
development of the mobile payments ecosystemt or
ensuring that transit agencies deploy interoperable Mobile payment technologies—and countries’ deploy-
contactless fare payment systems—has intervened to ments of them—are dynamic and rapidly evolving. As
either circumvent or resolve the system interdependen- of November 2009, more than 100 trials or tests of
cy paradox, catalyzing the country’s mobile payments RF-based contactless payment systems are occurring
ecosystem and causing contactless payments to arrive in cities and countries worldwide. This report has iden-
sooner that the marketplace alone would have other- tified world leaders as of Fall 2009; countries’ leader-
wise delivered it. ship positions may subsequently shift.
Methodology Which Countries lead in Contactless Mobile
This report focuses on which countries are best leverag- payments?
ing mobile phones (and, to a lesser degree, smart cards) In its 2007 report, Mobile Commerce, the OECD noted
as platforms for contactless payments and transac- that, “The level of development of the mobile com-
tions. The analysis examines quantitative data for each merce industry varies widely across OECD member
country, principally the number of electronic-wallet countries. But individuals, particularly in Japan and
capable mobile phones and point of sale terminal read- South Korea, have started to own the Internet-con-
ers underpinning the country’s mobile payments infra- nectable mobile phones that enable the development of
structure, along with the number and overall market mobile commerce.”23 As Shri Kumar, a senior official
value of contactless payments in each country. with India’s Ministry of Communications and Infor-
mation Technology (MCIT), observed in a presentation
Mobile payments statistics come from a variety of to the Mobile Forum of India in February 2009, “The
sources, principally market research firms and gov- Asia-Pacific region is the most advanced m-commerce
ernment agencies, that may use different classification market in the world, and the test-bed for the major-
methodologies for defining mobile payments transac- ity of m-commerce and m-payment trials.”24 Indeed,
thE information tEchnology & innovation foundation | novEmbEr 20 09 page 15
19. table 2: Contactless Mobile payments activity in selected Countries
Metric/statistic Japan south Korea United states
Mobile phone penetration 87% (2008) 30
93% (2008) 88% (2008)31
Number of mobile wallet-capable 78 million 12 million Only in trials
phones deployed
Number of citizens using mobile 17 million phones; 3.6 million phones; Only in trials
wallets 68 million smart cards 18 million T-money smart
cards
Number of merchants deploying 608,000 merchants +500,000 total POS readers 140,000 merchants
RF-capable POS readers/total deploying/total number deployed33 deploying/+500,000 POS
number POS readers deployed POS readers deployed much readers deployed34
larger32
almost 500 million mobile transactions will occur in Internal Affairs and Communications (MIAC) esti-
Asia in 2009, versus only 34 million in North America, mated that the overall value of “all business carried
according to research firm Gartner.25 By 2012, Gart- out through” cell phones in Japan was worth as much
ner expects that mobile transactions will grow to 2.4 as $106 billion in 2007, up 23 percent from 2006.28 In
billion in Asia and 221 million in North America. Re- South Korea, 63 percent of citizens have made pay-
search firm Juniper concurs, finding that, “The Far ments through their mobile phones, at least 12 million
East and Western Europe will be the top two regions subscribers have RF-capable mobile phones (about
for mobile commerce by 2013, accounting for 60 per- one-quarter of mobile phones), more than 3.5 million
cent of the [anticipated] $300 billion global transaction citizens use their mobile phones for contactless pay-
value.” Not surprisingly then, the two countries clearly ments, and 9.15 million mobile subscribers use mobile
leading the world in mobile payments emerge from the banking. South Koreans purchased $1.4 billion worth
Asia-Pacific region. of digital content in 2008, and the value of South Ko-
rea’s overall mobile commerce market is expected to
Japan and South Korea lead the word in mobile pay- grow to 6.84 billion won ($5.9 billion) in 2010.29
ments based upon the aforementioned criteria. (See
Table 2.) As Kumar argues, “Japan is two years ahead There are currently over 100 NFC projects, trials, or
of the rest of the world in contactless adoption.”26 In- commercial deployments occurring worldwide, 47
dustry executive Pragnesh Shah, formerly with Sprint in Asia alone.35 Although there are many NFC trials
and recently CEO of the U.S. division of South Ko- ongoing, most of them are still in the nascent phase,
rean mobile payments firm Mobilians, concurs that, and none have reached the level of critical mass of de-
“Japan and South Korea clearly lead the world in the ployment and use that has been achieved in Japan and
deployment and adoption of phone-initiated contact- South Korea. While Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan,
less mobile payments.”27 and Malaysia each make extensive use of contactless
payments—there are more than 10 million contactless
In Japan, 78 million mobile subscribers (73 percent) transactions each day in Hong Kong, for example—
own FeliCa-capable mobile phones, 17 million sub- almost all these are initiated through smart cards. As
scribers use these phones for contactless transac- consulting firm KPMG noted in a survey of mobile
tions in railways or stores on a regular basis, and over payments in the Asia-Pacific region, “Somewhat sur-
600,000 affiliated merchant stores (and a greater num- prisingly, the most mobile-penetrated territories on the
ber of terminals) accept contactless payments. The planet—Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taipei—have
market value of contactless transactions alone in Japan shown little comparable adoption of m-payments, ex-
was $8.4 billion in 2008, and the total value of mobile cept in the use of contactless cards for transportation
commerce activity in the country, including mobile and some limited retail usage.”36 Malaysia has recently
content downloads, fees for text messaging and Web completed NFC trials and is beginning to deploy its
data plans, etc., was $32.4 billion. Japan’s Ministry of mobile payments infrastructure, but the country has
thE information tEchnology & innovation foundation | novEmbEr 20 09 page 16
20. nowhere near the level of deployment as Japan and Figure 2: Mobile nFC payment at a Japan railway station42
South Korea.37 In June 2009, Singapore launched a
national “Digital Concierge” initiative, “to promote e-
payment adoption, particularly interoperable payments
enabled by near field communication,” but this has just
launched. In China, China Mobile, the world’s largest
mobile operator, has announced plans for a large scale
commercial rollout of mobile contactless payments, but
the rollout is not slated to start until 2010.38 A number
of European countries—notably Austria, France, Brit-
ain, Finland, and Germany—are conducting trials of
mobile-phone based NFC payment systems in major
cities, but most are still in the test phase. Even Rus-
sia is looking to launch a contactless mobile payments
system by 2011 or 2012.39 But no European country
has yet fielded a nationally deployed, ubiquitous mobile Japanese citizens view mobile phones as indispensible
payments infrastructure rivaling those found in Japan “lifestyle infrastructure” that serves “as the remote
or South Korea. But even compared to these coun- control for all the transactions in our daily lives.”41 This
tries, the United States lags those with multiple ongo- section describes the current state of the mobile pay-
ing trials or those putting together national strategies ments market in Japan; a subsequent section explores
to ubiquitously deploy mobile payments. Meanwhile, the sources of the country’s mobile payments leader-
contactless payments are evolving at a dynamic pace ship.
worldwide; countries not planning to deploy such sys-
Eighty-seven percent of Japanese own mobile phones,
tems risk falling behind globally.
90 percent of which operate on 3G networks. As of
September 2008, 78 million mobile phones in Japan
Mobile payMents in Japan had FeliCa-enabled electronic wallet capability, with 17
Japan leads the world in mobile payments consumer million mobile phone subscribers using their mobile
adoption, technology infrastructure, and market val- phones to make contactless transactions.43 Eighteen
ue. As Card Technolog y magazine writes, “Japan has the percent of Japan’s mobile phone subscribers report
most advanced mobile payment and ticketing market that they have at least tried out the electronic wallet
in the world.”40 Japanese consumers use their mobile feature of their mobile phones for contactless transac-
devices as osaifu-keitai (mobile wallets) in lieu of cash tions.44 As of August 2009, 82.8 percent of residents in
or credit cards to pay rail or subway fares (Figure 2); the Tokyo metropolitan area used electronic money, up
to pay for taxi rides, movie tickets, and parking me- from 78.9 percent in August 2008. Average transaction
ters; to make purchases from kiosks and vending ma- amounts per month increased from ¥5,600 to ¥6,000
chines; to auction used items; to manage loyalty cards ($61 to $65) over that time period, with users averaging
and programs; and even to check in at airports with a total of seven transactions per month.45
their mobile phones acting as a boarding pass. Japa-
nese consumers purchase hundreds of thousands of The value of mobile contactless transactions (whether
items—from tickets to groceries—with mobile phones initiated from a smart card or mobile phone), reached
every day in Japan. Because they spend an estimated ¥1.7 trillion ($17 billion) in 2008, and is expected to
¥60 trillion ($514 billion) each year on low-value pur- grow to ¥2 trillion ($20 billion) by 2012, according
chases, the market is primed for cash to be replaced to Nikkei BP, a major Japanese business publication.46
with electronic money. The following categories accounted for proximity pay-
ments volume in 2008: actual payments at a physical
Japanese consumers also use the electronic wallets on retail location, 35 percent; online shopping, 34.5 per-
their mobile phones to store identification information cent; transportation (trains, taxis, buses, etc.), 14.3 per-
used to check into offices, apartment buildings, and cent; auctions, 8.3 percent; mobile music purchases, 4
health clubs, and register their attendance at school. percent; mobile game purchases, 1.6 percent; mobile
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21. e-book purchases, 1.2 percent; mobile video purchas- 3) contactless transactions that use credit on a postpaid
es, 1.1 percent.47 Considering only the value of trans- basis, such as the DCMX credit service provided by
actions executed when Japanese mobile subscribers DOCOMO.
actually waved their FeliCa-enabled phones or smart
cards in front of a FeliCa-enabled terminal reader, this The four largest electronic money services in Japan are
amounted to $8.4 billion in 2008. (The remainder, Suica, iD (DOCOMO), Edy, and Nanaco. Suica, op-
$8.6 billion, is accounted for by transactions billed to erated by JR East Railways, serves as electronic cash
electronic money accounts but that were not actually (available either via smart card or mobile phone) that
made in a contactless fashion. For example, one made can be used to pay railway fare or to make purchases
a purchase on the Internet, but billed the charge to from affiliated kiosks and merchants. Over 27 million
one’s electronic money account.) Japanese use Suica in lieu of cash to pay railway fare.
Suica users alone make more than 200 million con-
the Contactless Mobile payments Market in Japan tactless transactions per month in Japan.48 Nanaco is
Contactless mobile payments in Japan began with the a contactless smart card and e-money service provided
FeliCa smart card platform and subsequently migrated by Seven & I Holdings (7-Eleven stores), and Waon is
into cell phones. FeliCa is an RFID-based contactless a contactless smart card and e-money service from the
payments standard developed by Sony; it is akin to but AEON group (one of Japan’s largest retail chains).
not yet interoperable with NFC. There are three major
types of mobile FeliCa transactions—whether initiated As of August 2008, Japanese citizens held 84.56 mil-
via a smart card or mobile phone—in Japan today: 1) lion mobile FeliCa accounts in Japan, including 67.7
contactless payments for rail/mass transit using a pre- million FeliCa-enabled smart cards, and 16.9 million
paid, stored value card, such Japan Railway (JR) East’s FeliCa-enabled mobile phones. By service provider, JR
Suica card; 2) mobile payments debited from a prepaid East had 25.9 million customers using the Suica smart
digital cash (electronic money) account operated by card and an additional 1.22 million mobile customers;
service providers such as Edy, Nanaco, or Waon; and Edy had 34.4 million smart card customers and an ad-
Figure 3: growth of Mobile payments acceptance in Japan51
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22. ditional 8.3 million more mobile customers; Nanaco In November 2001, this collaboration led JR East to
had 6.13 million customers of its prepaid service, with launch the Suica (Super Urban Intelligent Card) con-
900,000 using the mobile phone service; and DO- tactless smart card, based on Sony’s FeliCa technology,
COMO had 6.44 million customers using their mobile concurrently deploying FeliCa-enabled readers at the
phones to make mobile purchases on a credit basis.49 turnstiles of the 424 stations in its commuter railroad
(By August 2009, subscribers of DOCOMO’s DCMX network in the Tokyo area. Critically, Suica operated as
credit service had surpassed 10 million.)50 Over an open-loop, transit-branded card, meaning that pas-
600,000 shops now accept mobile payments in Japan, sengers could use value stored on the Suica card not
as Figure 3 shows. just for transit fare, but also to make purchases at af-
filiated merchants and kiosks in railway stations (and
history and development of Contactless Mobile elsewhere) that accepted the Suica card. By introducing
payments in Japan an interoperable smart card system, Suica launched the
Japan’s expertise in contactless smart card technology market for electronic money in Japan.
dates back to 1988, when Sony began work on contact-
less integrated circuit (IC) chips, culminating by 1995 Sony, looking to spur demand for its Mobile FeliCa
in the development of the FeliCa contactless IC card technology, spearheaded in 2002 the creation of the
technology.52 That same year, Hong Kong authorities joint venture BitWallet, Inc. which launched Edy, a
adopted FeliCa IC chip technology for the Octopus contactless smart card-based, prepaid electronic mon-
contactless card used in their public transportation ey service using the FeliCa chip. (Ownership of the
system (akin to today’s SmarTrip cards in Washington, BitWallet joint venture is shared 33 percent by Sony,
D.C.), and in 1999 Sony began trial use of the FeliCa 15 percent by DOCOMO, 5 percent by All Nippon
card as an employee ID and “e-wallet” in a Tokyo Airways, with the remainder accounted for by more
office and shopping complex. But by the end of the than 50 other companies.) Customers can use Edy as
1990s, FeliCa was struggling to find uptake and pen- digital cash to make purchases at am/pm, Circle K,
etration in the Japanese market,53 in large part due to and Sunkus convenience stores, taxis, bookstores, and
the system interdependency problem described previ- other venues. By 2007, Edy had attracted 23 million
ously. smart card subscribers and 4.5 million phone subscrib-
ers who generated 15 million transactions per month at
For its part, Japan Rail (renamed JR East after its 1987 over 50,000 participating stores. However, Edy is not
privatization), the country’s largest railway line, had interoperable with Suica.57 Nanaco, Waon, and others
begun research and development into automated fare also emerged as competing digital card services.
collection technology as early as 1987 and had intro-
duced magnetic stripe cards in 1992.54 JR East and Encouraged by the success of Suica and Edy, Sony,
Sony worked collaboratively throughout the 1990s JR East, and DOCOMO discussed the possibility of
on contactless payment systems, experimenting with embedding FeliCa technology in DOCOMO’s phones,
microwaves and battery-operated cards in trials from and by March 2003 the trio ascertained that it was tech-
1994 to 1997, finding that the advantages of moving nologically feasible to do so.58 The greater challenge, of
from magnetic stripe cards to contactless cards are course, lay in identifying a sustainable business model
accelerated transaction processing time—700 milli- for all parties. Sony would profit directly from sales of
seconds for magnet stripe cards versus 200 millisec- the FeliCa chip, but because DOCOMO earned rev-
onds for contactless cards—and enhanced reliability.55 enues primarily through voice and data services traf-
(Payment terminals commonly found in mass transit, fic, and because contactless transactions settle over the
which take in and return a magnetic stripe card, con- back-end of the financial payment network, contactless
tain moving parts that convey the card through the mobile payments would not significantly increase tele-
reader and are far more prone to mechanical failure communications traffic, and thus would not generate
than contactless fare systems.) JR East also recognized a revenue stream DOCOMO could tap into.59 Take-
that, by deploying contactless ticketing, it could sub- shi Natsuno, father of DOCOMO’s popular wireless
stantially reduce the number of employees it deployed Internet service i-Mode and head of the DOCOMO
in railway stations to handle paper-based ticketing.56 team negotiating with Sony, advanced a plan to split
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