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Nokia Corp.'s launch of Nokia Money, a mobile-payments system based on Obopay Inc.'s technology, represents the latest step in Obopay's transformation from a payment product to a payment platform. Nokia, which invested in Obopay in March, does not view Obopay as just another product to offer to its users. Instead, it is the foundation of an international mobile-payment system, says Gerhard Romen, Nokia director of strategic partnerships. "We're really trying to build something, a new environment here," he says. To do that, "you need a trusted, solid platform, which Obopay provides." Obopay launched in 2005 as payment service accessed through text messages, and it offered downloadable applications on a carrier-by-carrier basis. But until it began working with financial institutions, the Redwood City, Calif.-based mobile-payment provider's service was linked to a separate prepaid account. Citigroup Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide both have launched mobile-payment systems, in 2007 and 2008 respectively, that add to Obopay's capabilities by enabling users to connect to their existing accounts and by adding smartphone-software interfaces. Nokia plans to build on Obopay by adding a new interface instead of tinkering with an underlying system that Romen contends already is solid. For example, whereas some phones access Obopay as a distinct application, Nokia phones will integrate it with their contact lists–a user could just click "Nokia Money" instead of "Dial" to make a payment to that person. Bruce Cundiff, director of payments research and consulting at Javelin Strategy and Research of Pleasanton, Calif., says Obopay long has been flexible about how its partners use its technology. "Obopay has certainly established itself as a mobile-payments brand, but there's no reason" it cannot be both a product and a platform, he says. Even if it means Obopay's brand fades as the Nokias, MasterCards and Citis of the world develop their own flavors of its system, it is still a sign of success for Obopay, Cundiff says. "That's just the nature of the business: whatever works," he says. "You need to have that flexibility and not necessarily insist on your brand being first and foremost. … I don't think it's going out on a limb to say the Citi and MasterCard brands are probably more recognized globally than Obopay."
