ZDNet — MasterCard has unveiled the first commerce application for Softbank’s Pepper, with the humanoid robot to be trialled by Pizza Hut Restaurants Asia for order taking and payments processing. To use Pepper, a customer will need to pair their MasterPass account either by tapping the Pepper icon within the wallet or by scanning a QR code on the tablet that the robot holds.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/pizza-hut-asia-to-trial-softbanks-pepper-for-mastercard-payments/
Telecom Asia — Telecom Asia — Financial inclusion in Bangladesh just took a stride closer to reality with the launch of a new international remittance receiving service via a partnership between MasterCard, Western Union, bKash and BRAC Bank. The new service enables bKash’s registered customers to use their mobile phones to receive remittances from abroad directly into their bKash accounts.
http://www.telecomasia.net/content/mobile-money-service-launched-bangladesh
Telecom Asia — IBM and MasterCard this week announced a partnership to give smaller merchants the chance to tap into the benefits of big data. The partnership will give merchants the ability to access real-time, analytics-based market insights on revenue, market share, customer demographics and competitors in a particular location and across multiple locations.
http://www.telecomasia.net/content/ibm-mastercard-offer-big-data-platform-smes
Enterprise Innovation — ChinaDailyNews cites market research firm Packaged Facts as estimating the global payment card market to have reached at US$17.26 trillion in purchase value in 2014. The same article claims China UnionPay (CUP) accounted for 24.3% or US$5.92 trillion in the same period.
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