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Welcome to the PaymentsSource Morning Briefing, delivered daily. The information you need to start your day, including top headlines from PaymentsSource and around the Web:
$100 billion store: Developers have earned more than $70 billion through Apple's App Store in the nine years since its launch, reports Engadget, which computes users have spend more than $100 billion in the App Store given Apple's usual 70/30 split with developers. There's been a notable spike in the past year of 70% with photo and video apps approaching a 90% growth rate. Engadget attributes this growth to improvements in Apple's camera quality and the increase in people's appetite for photo sharing. Paid app subscriptions are up 58% over the past year, following a change in how Apple shares revenue from subscription payments. After keeping the first year at a 70/30 split, Apple's cut drops to 15%. Engadget reports video apps may soon be subject to the 85/15 split from year one if the developers' apps are integrated with Apple TV. Over the years, the App Store has gradually supported more diverse payment options such as UnionPay and bitcoin to broaden its reach. The announcement comes ahead of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, which starts Monday.
The Apple Inc. logo is seen outside of the company's new flagship store at Union Square in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, May 19, 2016. The flagship location, opening Saturday on San Francisco's Union Square, boasts 40-foot-tall doors opening onto the square and comprises five departments, or what Apple prefers to call "features." Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Stripe's analysis: E-commerce technology company Stripe has drawn considerable investment, giving it lots of options to expand its range of merchant services. Late Thursday it launched Sigma, an analytics tool that allows businesses to avoid downloading data from Stripe for independent analysis. Sigma will be available on Stripe's dashboard, giving businesses access to instant data without technology work or maintenance. And like most of Stripe's products, it's designed for people who don't have a lot of programming knowledge. Sigma also offers templates that enable businesses to spot unpaid invoices, recurring revenue or average revenue per user. Speaking with TechCrunch, Stripe cofounder Patrick Collison said Sigma is similar to Radar, a fraud prevention program that uses internal Stripe resources and data.
OneLogin's breach may hurt downstream: Identity management software company OneLogin has suffered a data breach that may have compromised customer data, including encrypted data, reports Gizmodo. OneLogin has acknowledged the breach, though it's offering more details to customers than to the general public, according to the technology website. Gizmodo also reports the company is advising mass password resets, suggesting basic login credentials are at risk. OneLogin specializes in identity security for large companies and counts Pinterest among its clients. Given the propensity for people to reuse passwords for different relationships, stolen passwords for widely used file sharing sites such as Pinterest could also potentially impact retailer or payment sites.
Mexico City Metro: Mastercard has already participated in transit ticketing technology projects in Singapore and London, and is adding Mexico City to the list. Mastercard will work with bank partners to launch a debit card that can be used to for transit payments, retail purchases and potentially social disbursements. One of the most immediate impacts should be easier payments on Mexico City's transit system, which carries about 5.5 million travelers each day on buses and heavy rail. There are also about 9 million trips each day on smaller bus routes that only accept cash today. Mastercard plans to develop additional products that target small businesses in Mexico City, according to a release from the card network.
From the Web
LG launches a mobile payment service in Korea TechCrunch | Fri Jun 2, 2017 - LG announced plans for its own mobile payment service way back in November 2015, and today it finally went official with the launch. The LG Pay service is initially limited to the G6, LG’s flagship smartphone, via a software update, but it is only available in Korea. There is launch support for cards from Shinhan Bank, KB, BC and Lotte, and LG plans to cover all of Korea’s card companies by September.
China Postal Authority Calls for End to Data Spat Between Alibaba Unit, SF Holdings U.S. News & World Report | Fri Jun 2, 2017 - China's postal authority has asked SF Holding Co and Alibaba Holding Group Ltd's logistics unit, two of the nation's top logistics players, to end a spat that disrupted deliveries when the two firms abruptly cut ties on Thursday.
Why Bitcoin Needs Washington to Go Mainstream Fortune | Thu Jun 1, 2017 - It’s not hard to see why this technology is exciting the world of payments. Traditionally we’ve had to rely on intermediaries like PayPal to maintain a database of account balances and transactions in order to send money online. In Bitcoin that database is maintained by thousands of nodes in an open network and constantly validated by the work of countless miners. Suddenly you don’t need to trust PayPal anymore. Since there is no intermediary, Bitcoin works a lot like cash, but online.
Dumping paper invoices is vital for business relevance More than ever, businesses across industries are discovering that the result of neglecting improvements in the invoicing and payments function of the accounts payable department translates to a loss in time, revenue, and efficiency.
How mobile marketing is shaping mobile commerce Advertising, marketing and payments are changing very quickly and traditional players will need to adapt quickly in order to survive, according to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker's annual “Internet Trends” report.
Citi, PayPal defy notion that vets unfit for disruptive tech jobs On the face of it, the cultures of Silicon Valley and the U.S. military couldn’t be further apart. Stereotypical techies are slouchy, decidedly casual and resistant to order. They are the opposite of the well groomed, formal and fiercely disciplined picture of a veteran.
While banks will likely increase near-term dividend plans, analysts and investors are more focused on the long-term outlook for capital requirements from regulators.
The Financial Technology Association — which had been granted the right to defend the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's open banking rule after the bureau declined to defend it — filed a motion Sunday to preserve the rule.
Kevin Fromer, who has headed the Financial Services Forum since 2017, announced his departure Monday. Fromer transformed the Financial Services Forum to advance the interests of the largest U.S. banks.
