Square, Facebook, Twitter, and many other social networks are going to be a foundational element for the mobile transactions market, as they make their way into e-sales over mobile devices.
It is expected that by 2015, the mobile transactions marketplace will be worth $1 trillion worldwide. Though many forecasters disagree at how quickly mobile payments will take off and how much they will be worth from one year to the next, what is known is that according to comScore data, the holiday season saw a 15 percent increase, reaching over $35 billion.
They also found that there was a 13 percent growth in e-commerce as a whole, bringing it to $161.5 billion. They credit the increased use of mobile payment and price comparison apps for this spike.
Square is the main driver of this activity, which is designed to make it possible for consumers to make mobile transactions from merchants through the use of their mobile devices and various payment networks (such as banks and credit card companies).
Square has stepped above and beyond obtaining the personal information of consumers and providing them with discount incentives for using mobile payments by developing an app that is hyper-local with social media elements which all have a range of mobile payment solutions incorporated into them.
Facebook and Twitter are also poised to begin an aggressive presence into mobile commerce. For example, Facebook is now expanding the potential of its “like” and “own” buttons and its new Timelines layout by including featured stories (or other forms of marketing content that are relevant to posts) into the mobile feeds which are targeting the 425 million people who actively use it over mobile.