Mobile payments

Grubhub's deal to purchase of LevelUp, announced alongside its second-quarter earnings, is a deal that seems to make more sense for LevelUp — expanding its offerings to include delivery — than it does for the buyer.

The news that Snap Inc. is shutting down Snapcash, a version of Square Cash offered on its Snapchat social media platform, may have less to do with P2P payments and more to do with the long-term future of the company itself.

Mastercard and Worldpay are embarking on a strong push to promote Mastercard's Pay by Bank system, which will likely face a deluge of competition under the updated Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which took effect this year.

Digital payments are becoming a critical aspect of nearly every new service for merchants or financial institutions.

Starbucks achieved rapid adoption of its mobile card app by building it on top of the highly successful Starbucks closed-loop gift card. Such a model could also apply to the cannabis market, which is largely shunned by mainstream banks and card networks.

Businesses that stick with the single gateway strategy will eventually find themselves challenged to grow with customer demands, as well as expand globally. As businesses grow, multiple payment processors are not only preferred, but required, writes Krish Subramanian, CEO and co-founder of Chargebee.

Contactless card and mobile payments are set to see significant uptake in Australia, already a world leader in contactless card acceptance, as the country starts to implement open transit payments.

Worldpay and Mastercard have formed a global strategic partnership, expanding the ways consumers and merchants connect for online and in-app payments via Mastercard’s Vocalink business.

On the surface, the Uber-Venmo partnership sounds like a coup for Venmo, getting its brand into the app that defined the ride-sharing category. But the partnership is a much bigger deal for Uber.

The Prime Day event is also a chance for Amazon to showcase a new range of devices and payment options — and to sell those devices at a discount to get them into more people's homes.