Before the market takes off, there's already talk of a mobile payment 'bubble'
Adoption of mobile payments is just starting but it's never too early to discuss the potential of an investment bubble.
In an interview with Mobile Payments Today's sister site QSRWeb.com, Henry Helgeson, CEO of Merchant Warehouse, and Tony Ventre, senior marketing strategist for restaurants at Heartland Payment Solutions, discussed the imporance of merchants using mobile to engage their customers. However, they warned that all this talk of mobile engagement is attracting plenty of investment — Helgeson called it a flood of venture capital — that may be fueling a bubble.
And where there's a bubble, there's always an implosion
"Anyone can make a mobile app and last year's [National Restaurant Association] show featured a lot of novelty companies, many of which aren't here this year," Ventre said. "But this year, there are better products. Developers are doing a lot of due diligence for merchants and the venture capital community is starting to understand mobile."
According to both Ventre and Helgeson, critical mass is still a few years away, with Helgeson predicting a shakeout in the market will follow.
"People are throwing everything at this right now because it's an ideal solution for consumers and merchants," Helgeson said. "But we'll see oversaturation and then a few years from now, the leaders will emerge and we'll have a clear picture on what is really working."
Read more about trends/statistics.