Win Win Win

Walter Wriston, former Chairman and CEO of Citi once said, "Information about money has become almost as important as money itself." Google gets it. Up to this point I have been skeptical of the NFC business case and have blogged about it. Thin Isis Making a Bad Business Case Worse: Durbin and Mobile NFC Google has the ability to make this happen. Why? Because they don't care about the payment. They care about the information around the payment. Who am I? What am I searching for? What do I buy? They don't need a piece of the payment pie, because they will get a piece of the advertising and promotion pie, which is what pays the rent at Google. Any new payment initiative needs to make three parties happy: the consumer, the bank (or credit card scheme), and the merchant. This works for all three. The bank will be able to drive more purchases through their system, without giving anything up. They can also provide, with permission, payment data. Retailers can focus their offers on the most interesting customers. Google is partnering with MasterCard, Citi, First Data, Sprint, and retailers such as American Eagle Outfitters Inc., Macy's Inc. and Walgreens. American Eagle might want to target customers who spend more than $100 per month on clothes. They may want to target those who spend more than $200 a month on clothes and are less than a mile from one of their stores. They will pay to be able to focus their advertising dollars on such a consumer. The merchant is happy. The consumer loves the offer. More targeting means consumers can get better offers. It's a win win win.