Australia - Digital Economy - E-Payment

Synopsis

Micropayment utilising e-banking has been discussed for more than 25 years. Online e-payments via telephone billing systems were launched in the 1980s, and at the same time smartcards were trialled for micropayments. In 2011 the main forms of online payments are still the use of credit cards and direct debit cards.

However the financial institutions have been more interested in protecting their incumbent businesses than in seriously embarking on e-payment developments. PayPal has established itself as the most advanced e-payment system outside the banks. With its online payments increasing by more than 20%, PayPal is the market leader.

Off-deck payment systems using mobile phones constitute another fast-growing market, as do calling cards. But the real breakthrough will only happen when the large financial institutions decide to open up the market to e-payments.

In this report we provide an overview of the Australian e-payment market with some references to the overseas markets. The report is also provided with industry analysis and information on a number of the bigger players in the market.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. E-payment – analysis
  • 2.1 Twenty-five years in the making
  • 2.2 Moving to mobile payments
  • 2.3 Telcos under pressure
  • 2.4 Banks will have to come to the party
• 3. Service providers
  • 3.1 Electronic bill payments (BPAY)
  • 3.2 Other providers
  • 3.3 PayPal
    • 3.3.1 Overview
    • 3.3.2 The Person-to-Person (P2P) model: the success of PayPal
    • 3.3.3 Usage statistics
  • 3.4 POLi
• 4. Micropayment developments
  • 4.1 URL billing
  • 4.2 Money transfers through calling cards and mobile phones
  • 4.3 Gift and loyalty cards
    • 4.3.1 Overview
    • 4.3.2 Cardlimbo
• 5. E-payments code
• 6. M-commerce (separate report)
• 7. Related reports

• Exhibit 1 – BPAY – company overview 1997; 2010
• Exhibit 2 – Overview of Google Checkout
• Exhibit 3 – PayPal – other developments