Google has a new rival in the field of mobile payment solutions. Pago Mobile is newly launched and comes from Google’s hometown. This new entrant would add to the crowd of competitors in this field. Pago mobile would enable its customers to make payments with the help of an application on their phone. The payments could be for goods or services or both at brick-and-mortar establishments.
There are 53 merchants in the local category who have already participated in this new service which is secured with the help of chamber of commerce in Mountain View. For the consumers, this mobile app is helpful in making payments and placing orders, while the merchants can keep a track of the orders which come in, Groupon like redeemable coupon services can be even used, payments can be accepted and they can even give their customers a reward via loyalty programs which are integrated. However the merchants can make use of this service with the help of an iPad.
Pago has intelligently combined services similar to Google Wallet (which is an e-wallet service) and Square (a payment device), but it has even added few other services like coupon services and loyalty programs which gives it an edge over its competitors. However on a popularity note, Pago needs to look out for consumers to make use to these services. The signing up of the customers would be a priority for Pago along with them downloading this unique app.
Its competitor range is more like ‘The Great Wall of China’ as its biggest competitor would be Google to Isis who is a consortium of mobile carriers and credit cards and is comprehensively based in NFC. Again there are services like Serve platform which provide services to Verizon and Sprint customers. These competitors have been known as for now, but an integration of services for customers via the smartphones is unique, which shows that the battlefield is wide open for competitors to innovate and still jump in with innovations and jump out with earnings.
Pago founder, Leo Rocco said that the competitiveness in this field has been restricted as for now to Google, PayPal, American Express, MasterCard and Visa for the customers to make payments. This idea of coming up with an app for the payments is unique and he was amused that no one else had thought of it for now. Leo has a brief background of working at IBM.
The innovative option opted for by Pago might be unique but its implementation has a blurry image. The reason being that the customer basis his trust on these payments online. Additionally, these payments would even require coordination on a large scale from merchants, financial institutions, mobile carriers and phone makers. This can even lead to bewildering the consumers. Another problem might be the transaction fee. As for now, the introductory offer reads a minimal rate, but in the times to come the percentage is bound to go up to 5% which is almost double of the normal rates. Rocco still believes that the quality of service would be there to act as compensation for the high transaction fee.
Talking about the inspiration, Rocco recalled that he was in San Francisco’s AT&T Park to witness a baseball game. He had been that specially to watch the home run record to be broken be Barry Bonds. But the historic moment was missed by Rocco as he was standing in a queue to make the payment of his food.
However, Pago has begun its journey and it would be a ‘wait-and-watch’ theory to be adopted by its competitors and Pago even. Interested consumers can download the BlackBerry app from here, iPhone App from here and Android users can get it from here.