Visa Takes on PayPal with V.me Digital Wallet Service
V me! Don’t know that saying? Well it’s something that might just enter Urban Dictionary one day as Visa has launched their digital wallet service dubbed V.me. Rather than enter your credit card each and every time you make a payment online, you’ll just login into V.me and make the payment as you would approve someone using your Facebook credentials.
Visa actually got the nice and short V.me domain name through the .Me development program which you can also use if you have a particularly interesting idea for a website or service that needs a .me!
But I Already Have PayPal…
Yes, you do. You might also use Moneybookers. Guess what, V.me is free to register and from what we gather from Visa it should be far cheaper to use than any other digital wallet surface if you’re already using a Visa or Mastercard…
V.me is currently in closed beta and should launch in early 2012. V.me will work similarly to Google Checkout or Paypal. You’ll have a big V.me button while checking out you can use to log into the service. While it might be Visa’s service, you will be able to use any major credit card such as American Express or Discovery with V.me.
Visa’s head of product Jennifer Schultz told All Things D they are presenting a special developer program to promote V.me and their other services that are now centralized: Authorize.net, CyberSource, Fundamo and Playspan. Interestingly, Visa’s head of mobile told CNET that they are planning to promote V.me through banks which would offer the service as part as their online banking packages… So… developers?
Got a Shop or App?
V.me looks promising, but before users flock to log in they need shops and apps to spend their money at. Visa is planning to charm both business and developers. To businesses Visa will offer clear pricing and as easy of a process to add the V.me button as possible to any website. You’ll be able to add a V.me buy button to your website with some Javascript tags – not bad. With a particular focus on mobile, Visa will offer a checkout process optimized for your iPhone or Android that should make checking out easier and earn both the participating business and V.me some extra cash.
While V.me might be in closed beta for users, it’s opened up for developers. As a developer you can create your V.me developer account now and access their APIs, sandbox and documentation. Visa wants as many places to be ready with V.me when they launch in 2012. as possible and that’s why developers should have an easier time integrating V.me. “Super easy integration” with a “sempless in-app experience” – says Visa. Code and see…
With a cool and recognizable name like V.me, the service looks pretty promising for 2012. 😉 The mobile experience and lots of developer goodies are not bad, either! Would you like to v me one day?
