WhatsApp has begun testing a new payments feature in India that will allow people to send money to other WhatsApp users, excluding merchant accounts. The feature is currently in beta, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans, but hasn’t been publicly announced because it’s not widely available at this time. The company has been working on support for a… Read More
Category: Payments
Stripe will establish an engineering hub in Dublin
Stripe will open its first engineering center outside the United States in Dublin, the company told Reuters today. Dublin isn’t a surprising choice. Though the online payment processing provider is based in San Francisco, its founders are Irish and Stripe’s European headquarters are already in the Irish capital, where it has about 100 employees. Reuters says Stripe will hire… Read More
PayPal sees 24% revenue growth in its latest quarter
PayPal impressed Wall Street when it reported fourth-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday. The global payments giant beat analyst expectations for both sales and profit. PayPal reported $3.71 billion in revenue on a foreign-exchange neutral basis, or 24% growth from the same period last year. Analysts were expecting $3.63 billion in revenue for the quarter. Adjusted earnings per… Read More
U.S. banks’ Venmo alternative, Zelle, moved $75B last year, says 100,000 people enroll daily
Zelle, U.S. banks’ answer to mobile payment services like PayPal and Venmo, claims that nearly 100,000 consumers, on average, are signing up for its service per day. The company also painted a picture of growing traction, noting it processed over 247 million payments in 2017, an increase of over 45 percent year-over-year, totalling $75 billion in peer-to-peer payments, up from $55… Read More
Facebook lets you tip game live streamers $3+
Facebook Live is launching monetization for video gameplay streamers, allowing users to tip creators a minimum of $3 via the desktop site. Right now, the contributor of the tips doesn’t get any special call-out or privileges, though Facebook tells me it’s considering different options for creators and gamers. Read More
Stripe is ending support for bitcoin payments on April 23
Payments platform Stripe will stop supporting bitcoin in April, citing the cryptocurrency’s volatility and long transaction times, among other things. It’s a logical decision, but one likely to anger the easily provoked crypto-crowd. Read More
Tradeshift Frontiers innovation lab hopes to drive blockchain adoption in the global supply chain
Today, Tradeshift, a procure-to-pay supply chain management platform for SMBs and enterprise, announced Tradeshift Frontiers. Frontiers is an innovation lab and incubator that will focus on transforming supply chains through emerging technologies such as distributed ledgers, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things. “The use cases we’re working through Frontiers cover… Read More
Marijuana-friendly states ask Congress to make banking legal for the weed industry
Recreational marijuana might be having its moment, but that doesn’t mean that all the kinks are worked out. Due to laws that still classify it as an illicit substance on the federal level, the banking industry has yet to warm up to the burgeoning weed business for fear of criminal liability. To alleviate those fears, a bipartisan group of 18 attorneys general from states with… Read More
Ripple announces XRP trial with cross-border remittance firm MoneyGram
Well, well, well. Ripple, the company behind the controversial XRP cryptocurrency which has been criticized for obfuscating the nature of its partnerships with financial organizations, has announced a tie-up with global payment network MoneyGram. MoneyGram, which saw a $1.2 billion acquisition from Alibaba’s Ant Financial affiliate collapse over concerns from the U.S. government, said it… Read More
This smart credit card has a cellphone antenna inside
Your credit card is about to get a lot smarter.
SEE ALSO: The best tech of CES 2018
Dynamics Inc. and Sprint announced at CES 2018 a reprogrammable payment card that can be used for a bunch of different accounts: debit, credit, loyalty, and any…
Google brings its different payment platforms together under the Google Pay brand
Google is simplifying the way it presents its different payments tools to consumers, uniting them under a new brand called Google Pay. In a Google blog post, Vice President of Product Management for Payments Pali Bhat described this as more of a rebranding than a change to the underlying products or technology. He said the products being brought together include Android Pay (Google’s… Read More
Edge Mobile Payments buys what’s left of Plastc in hopes that there’s still life left in smart cards
The death of Plastc back in April looked to many like the final nail in the smart card coffin. After all, the news came only a few months after the space’s other big player, Coin, called it quits. Of course, the loss of Coin wasn’t totally in vain — the company was ultimately purchased by Fitbit. Now Plastc is getting a second lease on life of sorts. Read More