I would like to comment on ping.ping, Belgacom’s initiative to launch NFC mobile payment in Belgium. They launched ping.ping a little over a month ago (after duly buying Tunz, originally a SMS-based mobile payment software start-up), and it did not make much noise, although I think what they are doing is a very smart move.

While everyone is awaiting the ever-delayed NFC phones, Belgacom’s team decided to make a bold move and whip the market a bit. They launched ping.ping (named after the shortest man on the planet – Chinese), which, for the end user, is a service that materializes as a RFID sticker on his phone, and an account on www.pingping.be.

The RFID sticker (Mifare DES-fire) is only an identifier. Merchants do have a NFC phone, but only to acquire the transaction. Merchants have a merchant ID, they the amount on they ping.ping mobile interface, and the whole batch of data goes online directly to the Belgacom servers. If the merchant’s service is activated for the user, and if the ping.ping account is loaded with enough cash, then the transaction is accepted. Yes, everything is done online. From the ping.ping website, end-users can chose which services/where they want to pay with ping.ping (parking, supermarkets, fast-food, etc.), and which account of theirs should be debited (bank account, Proximus phone bill, etc.). [How it works.pdf]

This is not our vision of NFC services, but still, Belgacom is creating a brand name, deploying services, creating habits, and – most importantly- growing a user base. And this is the beauty of the service: ping.ping sales force goes to a service provider, says a parking management company for example, they sign a deal, and Belgacom immediately grow their ping.ping user base by 30,000 people. These end-users trade-in their contactless parking card for a ping.ping sticker… They then can decide, once logged on the website, to subscribe to more ping.ping services.

So Belgacom is turning the hindrance created by the lack of phones into a competitive advantage: the longer the delay for NFC phones to be available, the larger the ping.ping user base. And when NFC phones are available in numbers, they’ll kindly propose their users to switch to “mobile ping.ping”. Brilliant! …and inexpensive (ping.ping pilot= 500 Mifare stickers vs. MNOs giving away 500 Nokia 6212 to their customers)

No comments yet.

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Or add a Video Comment

with

« Back to text comment