Who Owns the Wallet Owns Big Data

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Gary Schwartz

MasterCard launched its mobile wallet services at the keynote in New Orleans at the CTIA Wireless Show. Big news? Maybe, if you read between the lines.

The service is comprised of three components. PayPass Acceptance Network, which includes PayPass Online and PayPass Contactless, will help merchants accept electronic payments across multiple channels while giving consumers a simple check-out process. The services will be expanded to the point-of-sale over time, enabling the delivery of targeted offers, coupons and enhanced loyalty programs.

I think there is a battle raging that is not part of the press release. It is a battle to own the financial relationship with the consumer – Apple, Google, Visa, ISIS, all want to be the landlord for the secure credentials. The winner owns big data and all the money that flows from this.

In this scenario, MasterCard is the landlord, Gemalto is the property manager and the tenents are retailers, brands . . . anyone who needs to leverage the wallets data down stream. Consumers secure credentials come with a full identification profile and of course their purchase behaviour.

Steve Mott and the retailers that are attempting to create their own competitive wallet is in direct response to this exact data scenerio.

MasterCard’s open door policy to third parties is a Trojan strategy to be the gatekeeper — everyone wants this privileged role. The dust has not settled on this two-sided business debate and will not for many years. But remember, the guy who owns the gateway owns big data.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Mobile Privacy Experts: Consumer Trust Vital

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Gary Schwartz

Gary Schwartz, president and CEO of Impact Mobile and chair of the North American Chapter of the Mobile Entertainment Forum, tells Street Fight that building trust should be the core of a retailer’s mobile and online strategy. “The key to engaging with the consumer in a trusted relationship in a retail environment is you don’t want to engage with people who don’t want to engage with you,” says Schwartz. “The outreach should be focused on loyalists with a retailer’s brand. It’s about your loyalists putting up their hand and saying ‘hey I want to talk to you because I love your product.’”

“You need to make a call to action on all your touch points, and say if you love my product opt in. Once you have that, you have to let them opt out at any time,” Schwartz adds. He believes the strategy can be outrageously successful: “If you’re on target, if you are talking to them and they love your product, they will stay with you. It will attract 10x over your email channel.”

WATCH INTERVIEW

Building trust requires developers and businesses to implement a strategy that give consumers a better idea of what information is collected from them, and what choices they have to control it. Regulators have encouraged developers and businesses to engage in “privacy by design,” that is, incorporate transparency and protections for consumers on their information as products are built and launched.

Regulators have become increasingly aggressive in addressing what they perceive as abuses in the use of consumer information from mobile devices. Already, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Research in Motion and other major application stores have agreed with the California Attorney General to require all developers to provide privacy policies with their applications, include a process to display such policies in their stores, and report developers that are not complying. The California Attorney General’s office warned it will take enforcement action if the privacy policy process is not in place within six months.

Privacy vs. Data: How to build consumer trust?

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Gary Schwartz

By Gary Schwartz

The way we define the term privacy is subjective. In the United States, we police privacy based on a very broad definition under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act that prohibits “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.” The devil is in the policy details.

If the news headlines over the past few months are any indication, we are mighty confused with what to call private and what to call public, what to sanction and what not to sanction. How can we start to solve small-screen privacy when we have not solved our digital angst on the desktop?

Jules Polonetsky, director of the Future of Privacy Forum, says that when the browser invariably crashes it pops up a commiserating dialogue box asking you permission to send the diagnostic report to the browser company anonymously to help them fix bugs and build a better browser.

Faced with this privacy brief, only 3 percent of users click “Yes.”

Digital natives

Is it because we are digital immigrates? Our children happily offer data everyday about personal activity without hesitation.

Is the challenge simplifying the legal narrative to allow consumers to make an informed decision without interrupting their next click on the small screen? It seems an improbable feat.

In March, the Federal Trade Commission issued a report on best practices for businesses collecting personal data called “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: Recommendations For Businesses and Policymakers.”

The FTC, which is taking a proactive lead on privacy in the beltway, seems cognizant that it needs to create a flexible framework to best interpret what is unfair or deceptive in Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.

CONTINUE TO READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

The cost of the digital consumer: Instagram vs. YouTube

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Gary Schwartz

At $33 per user is Instagram a bargain? YouTube was purchased at $1.65 billion with undeclared but estimated low revenues. The cost-per-user was just north of $50.
However, we know that Google bought YouTube to develop a niche video portal. (A portal that in 2006 was demonstrating an average user time spend of fifteen minutes each day.) Online video was the new frontier and Google made YouTube one of the pillars of its advertising empire and matured the property slowly. Presently YouTube direct content and the YouTube partnership network supports the lions share on online video time spent in North America.

Instagram provides eyeballs – 30 million; however, is the application indispensable, sticky and can Facebook grow the property slowly to extract the value? Instagram’s global user base spend their time cropping and filter images to make them look upload worthy.

Acquisitions for eyeballs has not been a big win for many buyers. What is the long term content play for Facebook. Is Instagram a mature building block for Facebook or is it a pre-IPO market postioning story?

Girls Around Me: An issue of privacy and trust!

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Gary Schwartz

By Gary Schwartz

Why the shock and awe of a mobile application that helps guys find girls around them – an app which uses publicly available data from Facebook and foursquare’s APIs, data which is completely permission-based?

Well, the “GirlsAround.Me” app, understandably, riled the press. The Cult of Mac blog’s headline reads: “This Creepy App Isn’t Just Stalking Women Without Their Knowledge, It’s A Wake-Up Call About Facebook Privacy”. CNET’s op-ed reads: “Girls Around Me and the end of Internet innocence.”

However, the “Girls Around Me” app is simply another in a long list of controversial services that use information that is floating about the digital commons.

The Russian company, i-Free, that developed the app cannot understand the kerfuffle, claiming that it has been used as a “scapegoat” for the privacy debates whirling about Washington. Honestly, it has every right to be confused.

The industry itself is confused and responding to privacy in reactive knee jerks instead of thoughtful best practices. The problem is the complexity and sensitivity of social data. Combining location check-in with social graph is a potent privacy cocktail.

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Dealing with Mobile Consumer Trust on April 24th

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Gary Schwartz

We are all excited about the potential for mobile wallets in the store and the cloud. The consumer can click permission for mobile services to track their location and scrape their social graph. These services allow for shopping and social convenience. They allow for seamless, frictionless, realtime interaction with brands and retailers.

There however is an unwritten balance between convenience and trust. When does an location-based application like Highlight move from helping to spooking the would-be social consumer?

On April 24th in DC, join me to discuss how to build a consumer friendly ecosystem that is not dictated by legislation but rather by best practices, transparency and user-friendly signs for the consumer of the services.

There are high stakes. If the industry is not proactive in addressing this crucial issue, the fallout will be costly. Juniper Research recently stated that over $74 billion worth of contactless transactions will occur in three years and the privacy and security issues could cost billions.

Top high-level executives from leading online/mobile companies, content players, ad agencies and governmental agencies will gather to discuss the pressing privacy and security issues facing M-commerce and M-content.

MEF’s Mobile Commerce and Content Privacy Summit

When: April 24, 2012 from 2pm to 6pm, with a reception following
Where: SNR Denton’s DC Offices – Penthouse Suite 1301 K St NW Washington, D.C

For more information or to RSVP, please contact: Marjorie DeHey, GM MEF – North America

2012 Primary: Changing the Game in Retail “Politics”

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Gary Schwartz

Just as brands increasingly strive to establish long-term relationships with consumers, U.S. presidential candidates need to change their tactics to more permanently engage a media-driven and mobile citizenry.

It is always at this juncture in the primaries, when candidates are clawing for last-minute positioning, that it becomes transparent to the public that the election process is eerily similar to selling a product in a hugely competitive retail market.

All the techniques that Proctor & Gamble or Coca Cola use to market their products and drive sales are (if unnaturally) the same as those embraced by the candidates in the 2012 presidential election.

It is an interesting comparison. Let’s break down the retail ecosystem from manufacturing to final sale. Products are bought based on their function (or the service that they deliver), brand recall, brand loyalty, convenience, and, of course, price.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

SXSW roundup interview on BNN (Adult Spring Break)

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Gary Schwartz

It was “adult springbreak”. Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen, ACL, Venture Classmates, these are the names Gary Schwartz, President & CEO of Impact Mobile has been discussing in meetings at The South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference in Austin.

Watch interview here

The Impulse Economy