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How is it that a nation that was first to the moon, first to create artificial light, and first to deep-fry cotton candy is one of the only nations without a good SMS payment system. That is, a system that’s good for consumers, small businesses and non-profits, rather than a cash cow for telecommunications companies (which I suppose answers my question). But as Duncan on TechCrunch discusses, it looks like that may be coming to an end as Google’s patent for GPay reveals that they’ve been pondering a way to pay by phone.

I’ve written previously about the unfeasibility of running fundraising campaigns by SMS in America. Google’s GPay patent application reveals possible plans for a system that would allow people to buy things or pay each other by SMS. Via the Times of London:

The new patent, which was filed last year by Google but has only just been published, describes how a text message from a mobile phone could trigger a �??computer-implemented method of effectuating an electronic online payment�?�.

While mobile phone-based payment systems already exist, some commentators suggested that the development of such a service could give Google a lift as it makes a big push into telecoms.

[...]

The GPay patent filing describes a system where a user sends a text message to Google that gives details of a payment to a specified payee. GPay would debit the user�??s bank account and credit the payee. It suggests that a user would not have to keep an account with Gpay as payments would be made externally.

Taking payments out of the hands of telecoms would likely mean dramatically lower fees, which opens the door to SMS fundraising. What could this mean? Sure, there’s that initial vision of Bono at a conference, urging fans to txt $10 to ONE to end poverty. But there’s so much more that organizations can do, even if they don’t have rock-star power behind them. Here are a couple ideas off the top of my head:

1. You open the morning paper to read a story about devastation from a recent hurricane. On the facing page is an add by the Red Cross, asking you to text $5 to their relief efforts (the amount, of course, is custom-tailored to the average income of the paper’s readerships). The next day, an ad runs on the radio during drive-time right after news and traffic, asking donors to pitch in (57% of Americans txt while driving). On the evening local news, an anchor mentions the number as he talks about how locals are getting involved in relief efforts. At clothing and blood drives and everywhere relief efforts are going on, the number to txt is displayed to say, “You might not have time to stop right now, but can you at least give while walking by?”
2. During the State of the Union, the Union of Concerned Scientists encourages its members to txt in $1, $5, or $10 every time the President mispronounces the word “nuclear” to fund their efforts to promote disarmament. With low per-transaction costs, members could make many small payments and still make pretty good money. What’s more, a robust mobile payment engine will likely have a “repeat payment” function, designed for buying the same $1.25 bottle of Pepsi from the same machine every day, but which could be used to get a bunch of small payments from members who wouldn’t enter their credit card number over and over again.
3. A disease research NPO (think the Komen Race for the Cure or Easter Seals) releases a Twitter Plug-in that, one week a year, sends a post every X minutes, representative of every time someone is affected by the organization’s particular disease. Some of these posts are educational, but included at least once a day is one urging people to hit reply to make a donation. Since a significant number of Twitterers interact with it mostly through SMS, a reliable and affordable donation engine gives organizations an opportunity to engage them on the run. Of course, there’s the question of volume, but that’s a whole separate Twitter question…

There’s three ideas, and there are dozens more - share your best in the comments. There remain some questions associated with GPay and non-profits - will you be able to resolicit donors (I’m betting not - and that’s probably a good thing overall. Would you give Pepsi automatic permission to txt or call you just for buying a soda?)? What will Google’s cut be (probably reasonable)? Will the telecoms get a cut (hope not!)? How long before adoption is universal enough to start using it (I’ll go on a limb and say six months)? Will organizations get their money instantaneously (probably, if it’s going to be used for person-to-person transfer). And where in Virginia can I get a nice stick of deep fried cotton candy?

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 6th, 2007 at 7:39 pm and is filed under Marketing, SMS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.