15 November 2012
Reply [MTA, STAR: REY], a leader in the planning and implementation of solutions based on new channels of communication and digital media, has launched Pay Reply, a company specialising in consultancy services and technology platforms for remote and proximity payments. Pay Reply is the next step in Reply’s ongoing focus on mobile payments. In 2011, Reply released HI Credits, a proprietary platform that facilitates mobile payment services, and delivered MobilePay, the payment for digital goods platform using telephone credit of 3 Italia, Fastweb, PosteMobile, TIM, Vodafone Italia and Wind. Pay Reply helps banks, financial institutions, telecoms companies, utilities and retailers to create and innovate their retail channels and mobile payment systems. Together with its ancillary services, the mobile payments sector is one of the fastest growing markets today. The increasing popularity of smartphones and mobile commerce has fuelled a major increase in the demand for remote and proximity payment services. According to Gartner, the worldwide mobile payment market is expected to have 448 million users and 487 billion of euros in transaction value by 2016. In Europe, Gartner has forecast an annual growth of 25% in the number of transactions by 2016, by which time the market is expected to be worth a total of 65.5 million euros1. Pay Reply’s technology asset is HI Credits, which was launched last year and today supports some of the most innovative projects in the market, UP Mobile, Banca Sella’s mobile payments service and Olivetti’s integration with Nettun@ 3000 and Explor@ cash registers are examples of these. HI Credits is also the basis of a collaboration between Reply and MasterCard to develop innovative shopping solutions using all of the available channels. The ultimate goal is to create a solution that will integrate the HI Credits platform and PayPass Online, a digital wallet service and acceptance network, developed by MasterCard to make the purchasing experience simpler, faster and more secure. "The mobile payments market is experiencing remarkable levels of growth and innovation" declares Tatiana Rizzante, CEO at Reply. "Over the next three years, we expect to see exciting development opportunities in this area that will revolutionise mobile sales channels. There is clear interest today from players in a number of industry sectors, with many companies ready to acknowledge that success in mobile payments will be a real distinguishing factor in improving their competitive edge". Concludes Tatiana Rizzante: "Pay Reply can provide end-to-end support to companies for their mobile payment solutions. Services range from business analysis consultancy, strategic market positioning, risk assessment services and security/industry standard compliance assessment services to the integration of proprietary technology platforms, process analysis services, and the implementation of customised solutions both ’in-house’ and via ’cloud computing’, on a pay-as-you-go basis". 1 Source: Forecast: Mobile Payment, Worldwide, 2009-2016 - Gartner