The Blippy breach: implications for commerce
Last week, Blippy, a Twitter for purchases, created quite a stir when
it was revealed that the company had exposed the credit card numbers of
several users.
The company's co-founder, Philip Kaplan, sought to downplay the
severity of the mistake but as more and more individuals cozy up to the
growing number of services that encourage 'oversharing' of
financial-related information online, a number of parties involved with
commerce will be affected.
Blippy tries to turn shopping into status updates
When Twitter launched, it asked users a simple question: what are you doing? Blippy, a new startup co-founded by Philip Kaplan of F*cked Company fame, asks an equally simple question: what are you buying?
A bevy of high-profile investors, including Twitter co-founders and CEO Ev Williams, are betting that internet users won't be able to resist answering Blippy's question. They've funded the company to the tune of $1.6m.
How do you handle payment card declines?
A potentially valuable customer visits your site, chooses their products, proceeds through the checkout, and submits their payment details. The worst happens, their card is declined. What can we, as etailers, do to provide these customers with the best experience, and not lose a sale?
Would you trust a Pirate Bay co-founder with your credit card number?
Peter Sunde is best known as one of the founders of The Pirate Bay (TPB), the now-deceased BitTorrent index. In April of this year, Sunde and his fellow TBP operators were found guilty of copyright infringement and were each ordered to pay close to €2.75m in damages.
Having apparently decided that piracy doesn't pay, Sunde now has a new business venture: he wants your credit card number. His new company, Kvittar, plans to "automatically collect your receipts and store them digitally for easy search and access."
Visa teams with Flickr for global community
It's shaping up to be a big week for social media. Now Visa is making some social media news, this time on a more conventional platform than other recent entries, like Skittles. The credit card is launching its first global advertising campaign, complete with a microsite, rich media banner ads with live video feeds from international locations, and a multicultural twist on Flickr.
The "More People Go With Visa" campaign's microsite will feature a
"Gosaic," which is Visa-speak for a collection of images submitted by
people through Flickr along with recommendations from them about
experiences that can be enabled through a Visa card. The "Gosaic" will
feature more than 200 merchant offers delivered to users depending on
their interests, location, and time of day. The whole thing launches
with ads on Fox's "American Idol" tomorrow night, March 4.
CyberSource: online fraud burdening UK merchants
According to CyberSource Ltd., the UK subsidiary of electronic payment provider CyberSource Corporation, online fraud is a growing challenge for online businesses in the UK.
Although the total rate of fraud increased by 'only' 2.6%, one in 8 online merchants in the UK are now losing 5% or more of their online revenue to fraud and 37% lose at least 1%. All told, more than 40% of the merchants surveyed as part of CyberSource's 5th Annual Fraud Report saw fraud levels increase online last year.
