Hi All,
I am an i-Mode neophyte who would like to understand how payments are made on iMode. I have a ton of questions and I am sorry if I overload you all.
1) First, correct me if I am wrong but it seems to me that there are two ways of paying on iMode:
For micropayments made on official iMode websites (most of the time to buy digital content), the amount of the transaction is aggregated on the NTT DoCoMo phone bill. NTT takes 9% of the amount, the rest going to the content provider. DoCoMo is apparently planning on extending this billing service to all other sites soon.
The second type of payment, provided by third-parties, is used for other types of payments: goods, non-official iMode sites, etc. and is a wire transfer type of payment that goes as follows:
1. The user logs into her bank's i-mode service using his username and password, just as if the user were on a web site.
2. The user selects the funds transfer option.
3. The user must then enter the counter-party's bank and bank account number. In order to avoid having to enter the counter-party's bank's clearing number, the user can select the bank name from a list designed to allow easier navigation. However, the user must enter the counter-party's account number and can enter descriptive text with the transfer.
4. Once the payment is entered and a payment date selected, the funds transfer occurs just as all other electronic transfers are conducted. The only difference is that the user initiated the payment from a mobile device. In fact, the recipient has no way of knowing that the payment was initiated via a mobile telephone.
2) Now, I would like to know if you have some of the following elements:
- What are the usage figures for the second type of payment? Is it popular? Is it used to buy anything?
- How do sites set this second option up? What changes do they need to bring on their site?
- What items or content do this second method typically involve?
- I believe most of the transactions on iMode concern digital content. What about other items of higher monetary value and more typical of web-based commerce such as plane tickets, movie tickets, or even goods? How do iMode users pay for that? And btw do they actually buy any goods or high ticket type things using iMode?
- Are all the payments/transactions made on official iMode website aggregated on the iMode telephone bill or are some done in another way, involving another payment method (maybe the second I was describing)?
- Are credit cards used at all to pay on iMode?
- Are there any other alternative methods of payments aside from the two I mentioned? Who provide them
- Are credit/debit card used at all?
- Has NTT DoCoMo announced any plans to change these ways of paying or implement new ones? By for instance offering debit type account to their users?
- Is NTT DoCoMo planning on deploying a transaction system usable at physical POSs (points of sales) 'a la' MovilPago (www.movilpago.com)?
I am also interested in additional stats and figures such as number of payments made by i-Mode users (daily or monthly), number of paying services and prevailing method of payments they use, what does it take to become an official iMode site...
Thanks in advance for your help.
Have a nice day,
Frederic
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Received on Thu Mar 15 07:34:55 2001