payments

The number of consumers paying for items via their mobile devices will shoot past 141 million this year, says new data out today from Gartner.

That figure is a 38.2 percent increase over 2010, when mobile-payment users hit 102.1 million. The amount of money generated via mobile payments is expected to reach $86.1 billion this year, up almost 76 percent from the $48.9 million seen last year.

The surge in mobile payments will come despite the slow adoption of mobile-payment technologies.

The mobile, retail, and financial industries have been rushing to roll out near-field communication (NFC) … Read more

Google has rolled out its in-app payment service for any Web developer.

The service was first announced in May at Google's I/O Conference. The feature allows developers to offer single-click payments from their applications. At launch, Google touted the platform's simple integration into a respective Web app, saying that it only required the addition of a single line of code.

When Google first announced in-app payments, the company said it would be made available only to Chrome Web Store developers. However, Google said yesterday that its in-app payment system is now "available for all Web application … Read more

Too busy to keep up with today's tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET (and elsewhere) for Tuesday, July 19.

• Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt will support key Android partner HTC in its patent fight with Apple. Speaking at a Google mobile conference in Tokyo today, Schmidt didn't specify exactly how Google plans on supporting HTC but said "we will make sure they don't lose."

• Apple, for its part, isn't losing any steam on the earnings front. The company this afternoon reported a profit of $7.31 billion, or $… Read more

ISIS, the joint venture between three of the national wireless carriers designed to spur the development of a wide-reaching mobile-payment system, said today it had formed a partnership with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.

In addition to an existing relationship with Discover, ISIS is the first to strike a deal with all four major credit card issuers. That marks a significant milestone for the venture, which has been slower to deploy its mobile-payment system.

"By working with the nation's payment networks--Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express--we significantly advance the vision of an open and secure platform that provides … Read more

Sprint Nextel said today it will support American Express' mobile-wallet application as the carrier continues to put its stamp on the mobile-payments world.

Sprint said today that its Android phones would be the first to use American Express' Serve mobile-payment application, unveiled in March. People can use the app to transfer funds between Serve accounts, make purchases at participating merchants, and pay their Sprint bill. In the future, the app will allow consumers to redeem offers on goods and services.

It marks the second major mobile-payment deal for the carrier, which also played a role in the debut of Google … Read more

Blaze Mobile said today it had been awarded a patent for its mobile wallet and a sticker that lets consumers to wave their phones in front of a checkout reader to pay for goods.

Blaze was one of the early proponents of mobile payments, which has taken hold thanks to a strong push by the likes of Google, credit card issuers, handset manufacturers, and carriers. Blaze was also one of the first to embrace near-field communications technology, which enables tap-and-pay capability.

Blaze has sold an NFC sticker that would attach to the back of the phone and work in conjunction … Read more

PayPal on Wednesday showed off the ability to transfer money and pay by tapping two phones together as it looks to secure its role in the burgeoning mobile-payments area.

PayPal's senior director of mobile operations, Laura Chambers, demonstrated the tap-and-pay move at the MobileBeat conference in San Francisco by placing together two Nexus S smartphones (see video below). The phones are equipped with a near-field communications, or NFC chip, which allows for a quick transmission of information--in this case data about the amount of money transferred. The transfer happens through a special PayPal widget.

The demonstration shows PayPal is … Read more

eBay announced today it has agreed to acquire mobile payments provider Zong for $240 million in cash to bolster its PayPal platform and reach.

Zong provides a mobile payments platform that facilitates carrier-direct billing for digital goods and services. Users pay for their purchases by entering their mobile phone number and payment is billed to the customer's wireless service account.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company helped develop Facebook Credits and has partnered with many of the social gaming and virtual worlds' biggest companies, including Zynga, IMVU, Walt Disney's Playdom, and IAC's Zwinky.

The company claims a … Read more

Mobile payments start-up Square has acquired a $100 million investment from venture capital giant Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, valuing the company at more than $1 billion.

The company announced the investment on its Twitter feed. "To continue to empower everyone to accept payments anywhere, we've raised $100 million in our Series C Financing, led by @kpcb," the company tweeted. KPCB partner Mary Meeker will also be joining Square's board of directors.

The new round of financing has quadrupled the company's value in just six months when a $27.5 million round of funding led … Read more