Last week served as a wonderful reminder of how versatile the mobile identity market truly is, and this week only bolstered that stance. Mobility is a paradigm that penetrates all areas of our lives, whether it’s at work (BYOD, security tokens and smart cards), at home (multi-screen entertainment, gaming, working from home), or out in the world (mCommerce in all its forms).
Groupon signed an agreement to acquire Korean ecommerce company Ticket Monster before the second half of 2014 and named mobility as a key factor in this decision. The deal that will wind up costing $100 million in cash and $160 million in Groupon sales stock, was motivated by Ticket Monster’s impressive numbers when it comes to mobile transactions: over half of the company’s customers pay for Ticket Monster services via their smartphones or tablets. For a company like Groupon that connects buyers with local sellers, a dedicated user base that prefers mobile equals an opportunity to use next generation marketing and transaction technology like mobile wallets and geofencing.
Speaking of mobility being a boon in the world of eCommerce, FICO announced the availability of its proximity correlation service that turns a registered smartphone into a low friction authentication factor in physical point of sale credit or debit card transactions. By making sure that a mobile device is within a certain radius of a card during any given transaction, and allowing the smartphone or tablet owner to authenticate transactions that might otherwise be investigated for fraud (ie. international payments), mobility is in itself an identifying factor.
Multifactor authentication does not begin and end with mCommerce. Businesses of all sizes can benefit from an increased level of security, especially in the post-password world where once conventional means of security simply don’t cut it anymore. But deploying a multifcator security system and policy is not an easy task. This is why SecureKey launched its Engage Partner Program: to help facilitate and accelerate the deployment of cloud-based multifactor security through its briidge.net platform.
Cloud-based mobile offerings are helping pay the bills at Elephant Talk, who announced its preliminary Q3 2013 financial results this week. The company’s margin is up 17 percent since Q2, and it has calculated a 12 percent increase in mobile and security solutions revenue.
Going into next week, expect mobility to take center stage with the findBIOMETRICS webinar titled The Mobile Biometrics Market Landscape scheduled for Wednesday, November 13, and the release of the Xbox One will surely spur some news from the mobile biometric gaming vendors.
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