M-payments to generate $22B

Juniper Research Ltd. forecasts that mobile payments, or m-payments, will generate transactions worth approximately $22 billion worldwide by 2011. The analysts find cooperation among the major m-payment industry stakeholders creating a positive atmosphere, and an ecosystem capable of incubating intelligent ways for using the mobile phone for payment. Greater availability of near field communications, or NFC, devices, which let you swipe your phone near a sensor to pay for products and services, coupled with secure and easy-to-use applications, backed by the large credit card organizations and financial institutions, is expected to create the foundation for a healthy alternative to cash and other mainstream payment applications.

Investors are showing increasing interest in companies that facilitate m-payments. Last month, Danal Inc. obtained $9.5 million in a round led by Morgenthaler Ventures, which included the participation of the mobile payment service provider's South Korean parent company Danal Co. Ltd. Danal's service, which lets consumers buy goods and services online by charging their regular mobile phone bills, is widely used in Asia. Last year, South Koreans charged $1 billion worth of transactions to their mobile phone bills.

As Tech Confidential's special report on convergence points out, venture capitalists, traditional media companies and technology leaders are pumping money into the mobile market.—Mary Kathleen Flynn