On the web:

• Here are the videos in the Commerce track (including Google Wallet) from last week's Google IO Conference
• iZettle wants to 'fundamentally change the process of becoming a customer' - "A good example might be that an auto dealer doesn't try to sell a Ferrari to everyone. That's essentially what banks have been doing for a while and most small cafes aren't looking for Ferraris…"
• Do Prepaid Cards Spell the End of Cash? - TMG Blog - "Did you know that March 1, 2013, marked “the end of cash” for the U.S. government?"
• Phone Firms Sell Data on Customers - Wall St. Journal - "…carriers are coming to see subscribers as sources of data that can be mined for profit..."
• Bank innovation: this time there's commitment - Financial Services Club Blog - "Are banks truly committed to innovate? Will they invest without a business case? Will they allow failure? Will they let the innovation cannibalise the existing business model?"
• Wallet Wars – Coming to a Mobile Near You Soon - Gemalto Telecom Blog - "Consumers want help managing their lives; banks, retailers and mobile network operators want customer loyalty; it’s down to all of us to work together, securely, to offer the best possible consumer experience for mobile wallets."
• SumUp, One Of Europe’s Many Mobile Payments Startups, Launches In Russia - TechCrunch - "SumUp said Russian businesses can now sign up to its service in Svyaznoy stores as well as on its own website..."
• Not just contactless, but M&S contactless - Tomorrow's Transactions - "It was a brilliant plan, and we might have got away with it if it hadn't been for you darn kids."

On the wires:

• Wells Fargo Leads Fraud Management by Launching 3-Domain Verification for Commercial Card Customers - "In a related enhancement, Wells Fargo is also issuing EMV-compliant WellsOne Commercial Cards with an embedded microprocessor chip and traditional magnetic stripe to customers…"
• NCR to Make Mobile Ordering Easier for Jamba Juice Customers - "Working with NCR and PayPal we are using mobile ordering and payment technologies to align with our brand essence of a healthy, active lifestyle and help us deliver more value to our customers."
• American Express Offers Promotion of Free Two-Day Shipping with ShopRunner to U.S. Consumer Cardmembers - "Shipping costs can really add up when shopping online and with this new offer, our Cardmembers can benefit from the savings that ShopRunner provides at many of their favorite places to shop."
• Wake Up and Smell the Coffers! Mobey Forum gets Bullish with Banks at MobeyDay 2013 - "Many financial institutions still do not appreciate the revenue generating power offered by the mobile channel."
• France Overtakes UK as Europe’s Top Card Fraud Victim, FICO Map Reveals - "For the first time in years, the UK did not have the highest card fraud losses in Europe — France took its place, with 29 percent of the region’s losses, compared to the UK’s 27 percent."
• NCR Installs First EMV Compliant ATM in U.S. at People’s United Bank - "The upgrade of U.S. ATMs – including those at People’s United – includes an upgrade to the card reader hardware inside the machines as well as a software upgrade."
• Dynamics Inc.'s New LifeCode™ Electronic Card Empowers Consumers to "Save Your Own Life(SM)"
• Citi Invites Its Cardholders to Upgrade with Hotel Privileges - "Hotel Privileges provides special access to more than 1,000 luxury hotels around the world…"
• Oberthur Technologies’ dragonFly NFC SIM Card Certified by MasterCard and Visa - "As the fastest card on the market, it offers speedy download of new services and files through an integrated “NFC Turbo Engine”…"

On the web:

• California Sues JPMorgan Chase Over Credit Card Cases - NY Times - "JPMorgan Chase … deluged the courts with dubious lawsuits to collect soured credit-card debt."
• How hackers allegedly stole “unlimited” amounts of cash from banks in just hours - ArsTechnica - "Prosecutors didn't identify the payment processors except to say one was in India and the other in the United States."
• PayPal exec aims to “obliterate passwords from the face of the planet” - ArsTechnica - "Our intention is to really obliterate, within a certain number of years, both passwords and PINs..."
• One good reason to accept Bitcoins: It screws credit card companies - Pando Daily - "Merchants should enjoy it while it lasts."
• Mobile Gift Card App Gyft Partners With BitPay To Start Accepting Bitcoin Payments In Its Android App - TechCrunch - "Bitcoin is hard to use today, and that’s a good thing. There are still bugs and it is too risky for the average consumer."
• WePay Debuts Veda, An Intelligent Risk Engine That Leverages Social Media Data To Prevent Merchant Fraud - TechCrunch - "A traditional credit score only shows a sliver of who you are, but an online profile allows us to assign our users a more accurate ‘WePay credit score’ based on their personal history of verified, social data."
• No big bang for mobile payments - Business Spectator - "Key to this is understanding that mobile payments are not a vertical market. Players must understand how the different participants in a payment system – the merchant, issuer, and consumer – can all benefit through mobile."
• Adam Smith, Paul Krugman and Bitcoin - Tomorrow's Transactions Blog - "There won't be a single world currency (whether the Dollar or the Remibi) and there won't be a single virtual currency (whether Bitcoin or MintChip). There will be lots of currencies and we will all be better off because of it."
• Free banking at risk as EU wants us to bank anywhere in Europe - Telegraph - "European proposals that would allow Britons to switch to a bank account in another country could hasten the demise of free banking, experts have warned."
• Mobile Payments Service Wins Bill and Melinda Gates Innovator Award - eCommerce Bytes - "Boleto is a unique barcode payment ticket that contains the customer's unique purchase data and Trak's bank information."

On the wires:

• Eight Members Of New York Cell Of Cybercrime Organization Indicted In $45 Million Cybercrime Campaign - "A four-count federal indictment was unsealed in Brooklyn charging eight defendants with participating in two worldwide cyberattacks that inflicted $45 million in losses on the global financial system in a matter of hours."
• Value-Based Payment Models Expected to Reach Tipping Point by 2018 - "Transitioning to payment models that base compensation on outcomes requires physicians and health plans to exchange new kinds of information – different than what is required under today’s predominant fee-for-service arrangements."
• Retailers, Listen Up: High Rates of Mobile Shopping Cart Abandonment Tied to Poor User Experience - "While the majority of smartphone and tablet owners (68%) have attempted to make a purchase on their device, two-thirds (66%) failed to complete a transaction due to obstacles encountered during checkout."
• First Data Releases April 2013 SpendTrend® Analysis - "Year-over-year dollar volume growth increased 5.1% in April, a slowdown from March’s 6.0% growth."

In our Chart of the Week last week, we looked at the relationship between the unemployment rate in the US and outstanding consumer revolving debt.

This week's chart of the week looks at the history of card fraud losses in the UK - as cited in the recent report "The U.S. Adoption of Computer-Chip Payment Cards: Implications for Payment Fraud" by Richard J. Sullivan of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In the UK and a few other countries, these kinds of card fraud loss statistics are collected by the industry and shared publicly - unlike currently in the US.

Sullivan's article "examines how computer-chip cards work differently from magnetic-stripe cards, describes the security improvements offered by the chips, and reviews their mixed track record at defeating fraud in other countries."

The top dotted line in the chart represents the total card fraud losses on UK issued cards. The darker line below that represents fraud losses on IMOTO (Internet, mail order, and telephone order) card-not-present transactions while the third line below represents card fraud losses associated with counterfeit card transactions.

EMV chip card deployment took place in the UK during the shaded 2003-2006 time frame. Sullivan notes that the implementation of EMV initially helped reduce counterfeit card losses but that, because those cards still had magnetic stripes on them, fraudsters could still counterfeit them and use them at mag stripe acceptance locations outside the UK.

Sullivan goes on to comment:

After 2008, fraud losses with counterfeit cards and on IMOTO transactions declined. The decline was due to two factors. First, more merchants and ATMs on the European mainland had converted by that time to accept EMV payment cards, so fraudsters with counterfeit magnetic-stripe cards could no longer easily find locations where mag- netic-stripe cards were accepted, merely by crossing borders. Second, increasingly, merchants in the UK were adopting 3D secure systems for their IMOTO transactions."

On the web:

• A senior executive lifts the veil on some of Amazon’s plans - Internet Retailer - "...one of the e-retailer’s top executives provided a glimpse into some of the e-retailing giant’s plans in such areas as payments, lending and fulfillment."

On the wires:

• MasterCard Incorporated Reports First-Quarter 2013 Financial Results
• Visa Inc. Reports Fiscal Second Quarter 2013 Net Income of $1.3 billion or $1.92 per diluted share
• Tranzlogic Partners With Payment Services Leader Signature Card Services - "Tranzlogic’s first-of-its-kind data analytics and marketing technology transforms a merchant’s credit card transaction data into actionable customer intelligence."
• New U.S. Bank Tool FlexControl Helps Credit Card Customers Take Control of Their Finances - "U.S. Bank customers can now use a free online tool that puts them in control of their credit card payments and avoid interest charges."
• Moneris Solutions Completes US Visa, MasterCard and American Express EMV Testing Requirements - "As the leading Canadian payment processor, we are pleased to bring our EMV knowledge and capabilities to the US market and to have received this important certification."

PayPal has introduced Log In with PayPal - the latest version of what was formerly known as PayPal Access.

According to the company, "Log In with PayPal, provides everything consumers and merchants need to create an account and complete a purchase - including user identification, shipping information, payment details and checkout." This new version has been tailored for mobile devices and fully integrates PayPal's checkout experience for the first time.

On the web:

• Trustev Tackles E-Commerce Identity Fraud With An Online Fingerprint Made From Social Signals And More - TechCrunch - "Trustev … has developed a product to tackle online fraud using an algorithmic system of social signals, behavioral data and transaction history…"
• PayPal expands further into stores, but Wal-Mart holds out - Reuters - "PayPal's expansion into brick-and-mortar stores gives the company access to a market that is roughly ten times the size of the online payments sector..."
• Payments Network Dwolla Raises $16.5 Million Series C From Andreessen Horowitz & Others, Expands To San Francisco- TechCrunch - "The legacy payments networks in existence today are bogged down with outdated technology, slowing progress…"
• Payment Services Firm Qiwi Eyes $100 Million In IPO - Investors.com - "Qiwi is a leading provider of next-generation payment services in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States."
• RetailNext Raises $15 Million More to Track Your Every In-Store Move - PE Hub - "Our focus is on taking analytics happening online and providing it to physical retailers."
• It's Time for Better Online Authentication Solutions - Portals and Rails (FRB Atlanta) - "Improving authentication techniques and requiring their use are critical to better mitigate online account takeover risks."
• The Elephant in the Payments Room - American Banker - Jon Matonis - "Disruption in the unit of account is the way to disrupt the payments space."
• 4G will boost mobile payment uptake, says MasterCard - V3 - "The rise in 4G networks will help usher in a new wave of innovative mobile payment services for businesses to offer customers…"
• Chase Visa deal and SDWOANAF: where potential and confusion meet - Mobile Payments Today

On the wires:

• The UnionPay Travel Prepaid Card Launched by The Bancorp - "Though the card is targeted to those planning to travel to Asia, the card will be accepted within the US wherever UnionPay cards are accepted."
• ROAM Releases RP350x: World’s First PCI-PTS certified Chip and Signature Mobile Card Reader - "The reader provides a low cost solution for enabling Chip and Sign payment acceptance…"
• VeriFone Enables Channel Partner Success with New EMV-Capable, Portable and Mobile Payment Solutions - "VeriFone is committed to enabling channel partner success in a rapidly evolving market by providing EMV-capable, portable and mobile solutions…"
• TriSource Solutions Introduces First End-to-End Merchant Aggregation Processing Solution During ETA - "The increased functionality of our merchant acquiring platform can get PSPs and PFs up and running in record time…"
• Leaf Announces a Better Way to Sell Merchant Credit Card Processing - "Leaf’s open approach to payments offers a seamless reseller option for our partners to empower their sales teams with a new, competitive solution…"

On the web:

• PayPal Hits The Mall: eBay's Baby Takes On Google, AmEx And Apple At Cash Registers - Forbes (Clare O'Connor) - "The aim is for shoppers to be able to use PayPal at the cash register in two million stores by the end of 2013."
• Banks Urged to Put Limits on Payday-Style Loans - NY Times Dealbook - "Federal regulators on Thursday admonished some of the nation’s largest banks for offering payday-style loans, short-term costly credit tied to customers’ checking accounts."
• Google Think Insights: The Customer Journey to Online Purchase - "This tool helps you explore and understand the customer journey to improve your marketing programs."
• CGAP: Exploring Alternative API Product Concepts - "CGAP’s work in Applied Product Innovation (API) aims to understand how customer-centric design methodologies … could be tailored to branchless banking in order to achieve better financial service offerings for the poor."
• Medagate's health card combines incentives with functionality - Drug Store News - "...enables employers and health plans to combine a member/employee healthcare funding purse with a restricted-spend purse for targeted items and incentives…"
• Bank Customers Want A Seamless Experience (My Foot) - Snarketing 2.0 - "Consumers want things to work. Period."
• Banks use mobile phone history to determine credit rating - Springwise - "Cignifi’s new platform offers what it claims is the first to deliver credit and marketing scores for consumers without credit histories using mobile phone behavior data."
• Online Shopping, With Sales Tax Added - NY Times Bucks Blog - "Shoppers will now have to figure in sales tax when they are deciding whether it is better to buy a particular item online or in a brick-and-mortar store."
• The Mysterious World of Bitcoin: Does It Have Staying Power? - Knowledge @ Wharton - "Bitcoin has all the hallmarks of a classic speculative bubble..."
• Are QR codes losing their magnetism? - Mobile Marketer Daily - "Brands don't want to place a generic black and white box all over their creative…"
• Infographic: Mobile Devices Overtake Daily Life - "On average, people check their phones 150 times a day or every 6.5 minutes…"

On the wires:

• GateCrafters Now Offers Bill Me Later Payment Option - "We hope this option will give customers more peace of mind when purchasing big ticket items."
• Co-Op to Offer Enhanced Member Control of Cards Via New Mobile Card and Alert Product - "…the product to be offered by CO-OP will provide a range of services, including allowing members to set controls and alerts based on their preferences, such as transaction type, merchant, location and thresholds."
• Blackhawk Announces First Quarter 2013 Financial Results Consistent With Estimates Provided in Prospectus - "Demand for our prepaid products was strong during the first quarter as load value reached $1.6 billion, up 23% year-over-year..."
• Merchant Warehouse and LevelUp Announce $1 Million Development Fund - "LevelUp and Merchant Warehouse want to give more merchants the opportunity to extend the reach of their brand and tap into a wealth of customer data to help them grow their businesses."
• Accenture Survey Identifies Actions to Increase Consumer Adoption of Mobile Payments - "For mobile payments to achieve widespread adoption, consumers must be educated about the fact that mobile payments are secure and more convenient than other payment options."
• TSYS Merchant Solutions to launch TSYS Multi-Currency Solutions - "Pay in Your Currency, gives eligible international customers the choice of paying in their home currency at the point of sale, offering significant benefits to TSYS merchants and their customers."
• WorldPay, VeriFone Expand Efforts to Bring NFC/EMV-Ready Payment to Merchants - "VeriFone and WorldPay collaborate in crucial areas to deliver the right payment solutions to merchants…"

PayPal's parent eBay has announced financial results for 1Q2013.

The company's PayPal business delivered strong first quarter performance with revenue increasing 18% to $1.5 billion. PayPal gained 5 million active registered accounts in the period and ended the quarter with 128 million, a 16% increase.

PayPal's net total payment volume (TPV) grew 21% to $41 billion, driven by consumer and merchant use of PayPal both on and off eBay. PayPal continues to invest in growing its addressable market, product development, customer engagement and consumer awareness.

The company's mobile payment solution for small business, PayPal Here, became available for sale at more than 2,700 SoftBank locations across Japan and the iPad version of the product was launched in the U.S. PayPal also announced the chip and PIN version of PayPal Here in the U.K. which it plans to roll out this summer.

PayPal's offline initiatives are now live in almost 20,000 major retail locations in the U.S.

eBay reports that the PayPal 'take rate" was 3.77% in 1Q2013, up from 3.72% in the prior quarter and but down from the 3.87% reported a year earlier. Transaction expenses were 1.05%, up slightly from 1.03% in the prior quarter. The loss rate was 0.29%, up 1 basis point from the prior quarter.

MasterCard has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China CITIC Bank for "strategic cooperation in the virtual payments space within and outside China. The two parties aim to jointly develop and promote innovative products and services including Quick Response” (QR) code services, and collaborate to provide a safe and efficient payment experience for domestic and overseas cardholders and merchants."

This collaboration with MasterCard, a technology company in the global payments industry, will build a solid foundation for China CITIC Bank to become China’s global bank card, expanding its footprint worldwide, driving cross-border settlements and improving the cardholder shopping experience outside of China.

On the web:

• Interview: MasterCard's Vision for a Cashless, Cardless, World - AdAge Digital - "Masterpass extends the idea of 'a world beyond cash' to be inclusive of 'a world beyond plastic.'"
• The best interface is no interface - Cooper - "As Jack Dorsey of Square explains, 'NFC is another thing you have to do. It’s another action you have to take. And it’s not the most human action to wave a device around another device and wait for a beep. It just doesn’t feel right.'"
• The Real Significance of the Bitcoin Boom (and Bust) - Time.com - "Once alternative currencies are frictionlessly available on the Internet, every laptop will become its own Cayman Island. However the current boom-and-bust plays out, Bitcoin is the beginning of something, not the end."
• Why Bitcoin crashed, and how Ripple might avoid the same fate - Gigaom - "That single point of failure is the most popular Bitcoin currency exchange, MtGox."
• Rakuten.com Shopping adds a new digital wallet payment option - Internet Retailer - "Online marketplace Rakuten.com Shopping announced this week it has added a digital wallet service called MasterPass to the handful of alternative payment options offered."
• Retail Sales Unexpectedly Fall - Reuters - "Retail sales fell 0.4 percent during the month, the Commerce Department said on Friday. That was below analysts' expectations that sales would be flat."
• How does Bitcoin work? - The Economist - "Unlike traditional currencies, which are issued by central banks, Bitcoin has no central monetary authority."
• MCX Makes Its Case for a Merchant-Led Mobile Wallet - PaymentsSource - "As the Merchant Customer Exchange asserts its position in the mobile wallet market, it emphasizes that the path to a consumer’s physical wallet runs through retailers."
• America’s Most Profitable Export Is Cash - NY Times Economix Blog - "Measured in dollar terms, there is 42 percent more cash in circulation today than five years ago."

On the wires:

• CLEAR and Visa Offer Expedited Travel for Visa Signature Account Holders - "Visa Signature account holders can enroll to receive discounted pricing on CLEAR membership with a six-month free trial plus $60 off the annual renewal rate of $179."
• Elavon and Banco Santander Close Deal to Deliver Merchant Services in Spain - "The agreement establishes the JV, Santander Elavon Merchant Services, 51% of which will belong to Elavon and the remaining 49% to Santander."

MarketLive, a hosted eCommerce provider, has announced aggregate performance indicators of their mid-sized retailers for the first nine months of 2010. During the period January 1, 2010-September 20, 2010, retailers experienced a record 44.5% increase in traffic to their sites, resulting in the creation of 55.9% more carts and a 32.4% overall growth in orders. Revenue also increased by 23.3% over the same period in 2009 and units sold increased by 45.5%.

Chase Paymentech Europe has announced results on an independent national merchant survey, finding that "79% financial directors thought that their CNP payment capability had developed in a less than ideal way; a figure which rose to 94% in large organizations. The research also found that 68% of merchants still relied on manual CNP payment processing, requiring staff to process and reconcile CNP data manually, placing a huge strain on finance departments." It's even worse for cross-border sales.

Apple made a slew of announcements yesterday largely focused on its consumer entertainment franchise. If you're into consumer gadgets, gizmodo has a nice run down on what was announced. On the payments front, Apple also boasted that there are now 160 million iTunes accounts, each one of which has a payment card on file. The company also mentioned that it now supports 1-click shopping in 23 countries.

Compete recently released the findings of its quarterly Online Shopper Intelligence Study, revealing that 83% of consumers are shopping online at least weekly. The Q2 report was compiled from a survey of 3,119 online purchasers between May and July 2010. READ MORE »

iPay88, a large eCommerce platform in Malaysian, and Alipay, China’s leading online payment service, have announced a strategic partnership. Under the agreement, Alipay will be able to provide its users with the ability to purchase goods from more than 2,000 Malaysian merchants who use iPay88, and iPay88 merchants will have access to Alipay’s more than 300 million registered users in China.

comScore has released its Q2 2010 U.S. retail eCommerce sales estimates, which showed that online retail spending reached $32.9 billion for the quarter, up 9% versus year ago. This growth rate represented the third consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth following a year of flat or negative growth rates. READ MORE »

A recent study commissioned by Visa revealed that eCommerce grew by 39.2% in 2009 in Latin America and the Caribbean region, reaching US$21.8B. Various drivers contributed to regional e-Commerce growth, including changes in consumer behaviors, perception and demand; increased computer and broadband penetration and improvements in online security; expansion of key industries such as travel & tourism; as well as the addition of large-scale merchants, especially in Brazil.

It is forecasted that by the end of the 2011 year, the region will experience a 58% increase in e-Commerce, realizing a total of US$34.5B. READ MORE »

eBillme has announced its latest quarterly eBillme Online Spending Index finding that 17% of consumers plan to do their back to school shopping online this year, a five percent increase over last year.

According to the Q3 Index, consumers are planning to spend an average of $271.77 online, an 8% increase over Q2 and 20% over Q3 2009.

Chase Paymentech Europe has announced results from a national survey today exploring the challenges faced by UK firms in ‘Customer Not Present’ (CNP) payments. The survey conducted for Chase Paymentech by independent research company, Dynamic Markets, showed that 30 percent of the 200 businesses questioned had international growth plans within the next one-to-two years, but that most did not have the payment systems in place to properly support European customers. READ MORE »

Zuora has announced the release of Z-Commerce for the Cloud earlier this week at GigaOM’s Structure 2010 event in San Francisco. According to the company, "Z-Commerce for the Cloud enables the new business models introduced by cloud computing that enterprise customers now demand. The new solution is the result of 12 months of development with cloud leaders including Cloud Central, EMC, IC&S, Nu-b, Sun, Tata, and Zetta." READ MORE »

Visa has announced the launch of payclick by Visa - calling it "a new way to pay online, that is ideal for downloadable content such as music, games and movies. payclick was developed by Visa and Australian consumers are the first to experience this innovative transaction service." READ MORE »

Acculynk has announced that is has entered into an agreement with Fifth Third Processing Solutions' Jeanie Network to offer Acculynk's Internet PIN debit solution, PaySecure, to Jeanie participants this year. READ MORE »

Following the recent entry of paysafecard into the Latin American market, GlobalCollect has announced it has increased the number of countries where it offers this payment method to include Argentina. According to the companies, "paysafecard enables consumers to make online cash payments in local currencies without needing a bank account or credit card. In a region where - according to the World Bank - only 30% of adults have a bank account, offering alternative payment methods such as cash and prepaid is crucial for e- commerce merchants to succeed. paysafecard is being distributed via 3,500 outlets in Argentina, which will be the company's base for further expansion into Mexico." READ MORE »

Magento has introduced Magento Mobile - calling it "a new product that addresses the need for merchants to reach consumers through mobile devices." Magento mobile integrates with Magento’s e-commerce platform and uses PayPal’s mobile payments library to streamline checkout on a mobile device. Magento Mobile "transforms a retailer’s product catalog into a fully-functional, branded, native application which merchants can use to interact and transact with their most valuable customers in a way unlike any other channel." READ MORE »

Verifi has announced the availability of a new hosted payment page that enables merchants to outsource PCI compliance and fraud prevention. Verifi says its hosted payment page "provides retailers with complete flexibility to customize their checkout page for a seamless, branded customer experience, along with tools to optimize sales conversions." READ MORE »

Guardian Analytics has announced closing $9 million in Series C funding led by Sutter Hill Ventures with participation by existing investor Foundation Capital. According to the company, "the Series C funding will be used to accelerate product innovation and capitalize on the growing demand for fraud prevention solutions that can protect financial institutions and their customers from today's sophisticated cybercrime." READ MORE »

Vindicia has announced that Boxee, which brings movies, TV shows and video from the Internet to the TV screen, has selected Vindicia's CashBox billing solution to enable the new Boxee Payment Platform. According to the company, "Vindicia CashBox will enable Boxee content partners to offer premium content to Boxee users through a wide variety of payment methods and plans, from individual pay-per-view charges to premium subscription models. Boxee users will also have the option to provide their payment information via credit card, gift cards, and PayPal for easy, one-click content purchases with the underlying security of Vindicia's PCI-compliant environment." READ MORE »

Based on results of a study that tracks Mother's Day campaigns conducted by social games on the Facebook Platform, TrialPay reports that Mother's Day generated a 5x boost in social games revenues, driving $1 million per day for publishers with 40% of purchasers being first-time buyers.

"According to TrialPay's research, in the week leading up to Mother's Day, about $1 million per day was generated by "gifts for mom" promotions that paired offers from online flower merchants and others with free in-game virtual goods and currency. TrialPay estimates that these promotions drove a 5x increase in social game revenues over normal daily revenue, and found that about 40% of purchasers were first-time buyers in these games. In addition to adding new buyers, the holiday also helped game publishers more than double their visitor conversion rates - meaning that twice as many players as usual made a purchase during the period."

To download the full research report (registration required), visit http://www.trialpay.com/go/mday_2010. READ MORE »

Over on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness takes a look at Klarna - an ecommerce payments provider based in Sweden that's attracted a major investment from Sequoia Capital and partner Michael Moritz.

Digital River has announced it has acquired fatfoogoo, a Europe-based, in-game and online commerce service provider. According to the company, "the combined forces of Digital River’s e-commerce solutions with fatfoogoo’s technology will offer game publishers and developers an unparalleled, single e-commerce connection to manage their online product sales both in-store and in-game." Digital River paid approximately $10 million for fatfoogoo plus an additional earn-out opportunity tied to performance. READ MORE »