If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
I personally admire Elon Musk as an entrepreneur not only because of the work he's done, but also because of his constant determination to do great things.
You may have seen it. You're standing in line at McDonald's, Starbucks, Home Depot or a local store, and the person in front of you waives her phone at checkout then walks out with her stuff. No cash, no card, just a waving phone.
The PayPal and MoneyGram marriage is a natural partnership that extends the reach of PayPal to brick-and-mortar outlets without having to conduct a single grand opening. But one has to wonder about the real benefit MoneyGram expects.
Maybe Apple is simply waiting for NFC to become mainstream before it jumps in. That's undoubtedly part of the reason, but I think there are other explanations that present real problems for the incumbent card networks and banks.
Over the past few months, a dizzying array of announcements about mobile wallets have been made leaving many industry insiders scratching their heads as to how, and more importantly when, the benefits will extend to the consumer.
Being financially prepared for the costs of a death was something far beyond a family's thoughts, at least until that time came. And it always did.
While there's no way to know which big deal will next grace the pages of GigaOM, allow me to offer a few humble recommendations. Here are five tech deals that make sense and why they need to happen.
The idea of splitting the meal bill at a restaurant by handing a server two or multiple credit cards could be a thing of a past. That is, if the developers of the iconic Bump app have anything to do with it.
The problem is that the ease with which we buy online is now rubbing off on our kids. The era of instant gratification blurs the line between wants and needs.
On February 18, PayPal contacted Smashwords with an ultimatum: Remove the "edgy" erotica, or face deactivation of their PayPal account. Since PayPal is integrated into the Smashwords website, Smashwords had no choice but to comply.
In its purest form, this will be simply a challenge to the branch-led distribution model. How so? Ultimately, with mobile banking and payments, the branch and resultant paperwork processes becomes a convenience "penalty" for transactional and basic onboarding.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House of Representatives and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate are well meaning, but if passed, will be destructive to internet freedoms we've all come to expect.
It was a unique combination of circumstances, talent, and audacity that would make PayPal an incubator for so many successful entrepreneurs.
With all of the deflating noises of Groupon and Zynga, is it possible Square might find themselves going the way of PayPal; downhill?
China's e-commerce scene is, like the Internet itself, a paradoxical combination of "democratic" people power and top-down "management."
