The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web:
Go to the U.K.
Amazon Go is close to opening its first store in the U.K. in London near the Oxford retail and shopping district.
The cashierless store should be between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet, reports
Token of appreciation
PayPal is offering a blockchain rewards program for its employees that's based on participation in development.
Staff receive tokens for contributing ideas, reports
The tokens can also be exchanged for more than 100 "experiences" such as playing poker with executives or practicing martial arts with PayPal CEO Dan Schulman.
Apple season
One such market is Germany, where Apple Pay is set to launch following months of rumors, reports
The first financial institutions to support the app in German will be Comdirect and N26, and iPhonehacks reports a much wider range of merchants and banks should be on board over the next few months.
Putting on the lab coats
China's
The two companies will open an innovation lab that will focus on internet of things applications, including shopping, advertising, self-serve and checkout, reports
Tencent backs JD and is valued at about $30 billion. JD currently collaborates with Intel to build personalized shopping experiences, but the lab signals an acceleration into new products, TechCrunch reports.
From the Web
CNN | Mon December 10, 2018 - Google will shut down its Google+ social network much sooner than planned after discovering a second bug that revealed millions of customers' private information to software developers. In a blog post, the company said 52.5 million people were affected by a bug in a November software update.
China Daily | Tue December 11, 2018 - E-commerce enterprises were encouraged on Monday to make use of technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence to prevent dishonest behavior and improve China's credibility.
Forbes | Tue December 11, 2018 - January 13th will mark a year since the open banking reforms were brought in, allowing banks to open their data to third-parties for the first time. This initiative aims to incite greater competition in the UK’s banking sector, encourage new product development, bring in new disruptive players, and provide consumers with more choice and better deals.
More from PaymentsSource
Credit card fraud is on the rise in the U.K. with more than $2 billion being stolen from credit and debit cards over the past twelve months, an increase of 38% on the previous year. But while large scale data breaches have been heavily blamed for this surge in crime, ex-fraudster Tony Sales says one of the most pertinent reasons is a persistent lack of understanding within the financial industry of how criminals operate.
The holiday season is historically the most important time period for retail e-commerce. In 2017, total e-commerce sales and payments reached $2.3 trillion. By 2021, sales are projected to reach $3.5 trillion and 30 percent of these transactions are made during the holidays.
Kleiner Perkins and Ribbit Capital led an $80 million funding round in Viva Republica, the South Korean maker of the popular P2P payment app Toss.
The transition to open and digital banking is inevitable. The tide of consumer expectation has shifted and banks that don’t adapt will not survive. But it’s not too late for those falling behind.
