It seems like not a week goes by without Amazon making some kind of significant announcement. Most recently, the company surpassed the already high expectations Wall Street had for them. Because Amazon continues to grow and evolve at such a rapid pace, no one in retail or technology can afford to ignore them. That even includes the biggest players like Walmart. Over the last few years, Walmart has made some very significant investments and acquisitions. The majority of those moves have appeared to be in response to things Amazon is doing. The same is true for their most recent move, which is believed to be a massive investment in Flipkart. More Information About Flipkart and Walmart's Proposed Investment If this is your first time hearing about Flipkart, you're not alone. But even though the brand isn't that well known in the United States, it's one the largest e-commerce companies in India. As of this month, the company has a valuation of $20 billion. Last year, Flipkart did $3 billion in revenue. While e-commerce in India still has a lot of… Read more

Since its launch in 2007, Fitbit has grown to own more than 20% of the wearable technology market. While huge companies like Apple and Google have created their own devices for this space, Fitbit has been able to remain the leading choice for tens of millions of loyal consumers. What makes Fitbit's devices so appealing is they're able to monitor everything from heart rate during the day to sleep patterns at night. As a result of all this useful data collection, most users wear their devices around the clock. That can include times like exercising when they may not have anything else on them. So let's say someone wears their Fitbit when they go out on a run and then remembers that they need to pick up a few items from the grocery store. This is one of many examples when it would be very convenient for payment technology to be built into the device. And that's exactly what this device maker is planning to do. Fitbit's Plan for Payments The idea of adding payment technology to a wearable device… Read more

Last October, we shared seven different tips for National Cyber Security Awareness Month. One of the tips was to utilize encryption. We explained that point-to-point encryption is the current standard for ensuring that credit card data is fully encrypted all the way from submission through payment processor receipt. Because strong encryption is absolutely essential for protecting online payment data, a mandatory upgrade is being rolled out in the coming weeks. This upgrade is being handled by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. The new encryption standard they're implementing is known as Transport Layer Security 1.2. More Details About This Encryption Update The existing standard that many e-commerce platforms and providers have been using is Transport Layer Security 1.0. This standard has been around since 1999, which means hackers have had plenty of time to study and exploit it. In fact, there were a number of vulnerabilities discovered that allowed attackers to fully decrypt network traffic protected by TLS 1.0 back in 2014. These vulnerabilities revolve around fundamental protocol design issues, which is why upgrading instead of simply trying to… Read more

Over the past few years, we've covered a wide variety of new payment technologies. Both payment and consumer electronics companies have experimented with adding payment capabilities to all types of devices. Given the ongoing innovation in this space, it's not surprising that there's a new target that many players in this space have their sights set on. That target is adding payment technology to cars. Although this may seem a little far-fetched at first, we're going to cover everything you need to know about why in-car payments actually make a lot of sense. Who's Focused on In-Car Payments? As of now, there are four big companies who are really focused on in-car payments. Two of those companies are car makers, and the other two are credit card brands. The four companies we're talking about are Honda, General Motors, Visa, and Mastercard. Each car maker has chosen to partner with one of the credit card companies. Honda is working with Visa and General Motors is working with Mastercard. The goal of these payments is to allow people to pay for parking,… Read more

At the beginning of the year, plenty of people thought that cryptocurrency and the blockchain were going to take over the financial sector in no time. While those technologies are still very interesting, the frenzy around them has cooled down significantly. But that doesn't mean it's been a boring year for the payments space. Because so much has happened in the span of just six months, we want to highlight three of the most interesting credit card trends: Legalized Sports Betting In what came as a big surprise to many people, the Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of states allowing individuals to place bets on sporting events. This activity is expected to start in New Jersey and then expand throughout the rest of the United States. Although legal US sports betting is expected to quickly bloom into a huge industry across the United States, that doesn't mean it's without any hurdles. Just as dispensaries and other businesses in the cannabis industry have faced quite a few challenges, there are concerns about payments companies allowing bets to be placed with… Read more