Author: Sam Lambert

QR code payments at PayFast up by 412 percent

Sam Lambert
QR code payments - Transaction

The digital payment processing company based in Cape Town has seen an explosion of barcode use. PayFast, a digital payment processing service based in Cape Town, South Africa, has reported a rise of 412 percent in its QR code payments. These transactions were processed via Masterpass from March 2020 through February 2021. The extreme growth trend is seen as the result of the pandemic’s instant need for contact-free transactions. The rise in QR code payments, usage in general and scans has risen quickly as the pandemic required businesses and consumers…

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Mobile wallet payments more common than in-store cash transactions in 2020

Sam Lambert
mobile wallet payments - person using google pay

Last year, for the first time, people used digital payment methods more often than cash. Mobile wallet payments became more popular than cash transactions worldwide at in-store points of sale (POS) in 2020, said the Global Payments Report 2021 published by FIS’ Worldpay. That trend represents the first time smartphone-based transactions were more common than cash. The data presented in the Global Payments Report 2021 showed that there was a considerable 10 percent drop in the use of cash to pay for purchases in-store. This took into account the fact…

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Social and live stream commerce rose by 45 percent last year

Sam Lambert
social live stream commerce statistics

Social platforms and real-time video drove a massive spike in shopping via apps in 2020. Social media and live stream commerce positively exploded last year, as the pandemic greatly changed the way people communicated and shopped, says new App Annie data. Many countries newer to m-commerce experienced even higher increases in their app-based shopping. According to new data, global time spent shopping via apps (not including China), rose by 45 percent in 2020 when compared to the same figures for 2019. Many countries that hadn’t previously adopted mobile commerce as…

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Valero partners with P97 Networks for gas station mobile payments

Sam Lambert
Gas Station Mobile Payments - person refuelling car

The fuel marketer signed the deal with the network to broaden transaction options. San Antonio, Texas-based Valero has announced a new partnership with P97 networks to provide gas station mobile payments options to its customers. This will make it possible for customers to pay for their purchases using their smartphones. Customers will be able to use the gas station mobile payments options to complete secure transactions for purchasing fuel, car washes, or even certain purchases made in-store. To use this smartphone-based feature, customers will need to use the Valero app.…

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Hiring discrimination detection tool created using artificial intelligence

Sam Lambert
Hiring discrimination - Digital technology - People

This tech is able to detect these recruitment behaviors against women and visible minorities. A new AI hiring discrimination tool has been developed to help spot these employment website recruiter behaviors against women and visible minorities. The artificial intelligence system utilized supervised machine learning to analyze the behaviors. Prior research has solidly determined that several industries have significant gender and ethnic pay gaps. However, available data doesn’t make it as easy to measure the extent to which discrimination is the cause of those inequalities. The new AI hiring discrimination tool…

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