Mobile payment has no doubt won the attention and hearts of people. For consumers, especially those in developing countries and emerging markets, mobile payment will see them gain access to more and more inexpensive network and handset technologies that can make their lives ever easier. For payment enterprises, mobile payment technology has become the most crucial part of their development strategies.

　　MasterCard, which vision is to build "A World Beyond Cash", has long recognized the importance of mobile payment. In previous media interviews, MasterCard President and CEO, Ajay Banga, said MasterCard sees opportunity in the current phenomenon that 85% of retail transactions worldwide are paid in cash. According to International Telecommunication Union estimate, by the end of 2011, there would be six billion mobile handset users in the world. However, there are only about 2.5 billion people worldwide who own certain kinds of bank accounts. Quite obviously, the transition from cash payment to "cashless" electronic payment needs the help of mobile payment.

　　In the past decade or so, MasterCard has been tireless in pushing to realize secure mobile payment and in doing so maintained its long-standing leadership in handset payment standards worldwide. Its fast, reliable and well-connected networks that span the world promise consumers security when they access their accounts (credit card, debit card and pre-paid card) and make purchases using their handsets.

　　MasterCard sees mobile payment advancing in three directions, with the main difference being the different infrastructure set up in different markets – contactless payment, SMS-based fund management and surfacing mobile business systems encouraged by the fast development of smart handsets. Recognizing market potentials in all three, since 2003, MasterCard has worked with wireless communication carriers, handset manufacturers, service suppliers, third party developers and merchants to push for development of mobile payment on all fronts for the benefit of consumers.

　　As early as in 2003, MasterCard started its contactless payment innovation PayPass™, which can be applied with MasterCard^® or Maestro^® . With just a swipe of their cards, handsets or other handheld devices embedded with the PayPass™ chip, consumers can make purchases without having to handle cash and small changes or giving their cards to shopkeepers for processing. Except for some countries, no signature would be required of the cardholder for PayPass™ spending below US$50 (or the equivalent in local currency). PayPass™ technology is applied in two ways: supporting contactless parts (non-integrated handset add-on or stick-on) and NFC chip (built-in or integrated in handsets). Today, about 350,000 merchants accept PayPass™ card and devices.

　　In 2009, MasterCard launched the fully-integrated, real-time P2P mobile payment platform MoneySend for US card-issuing organizations. A breakthrough in consumer payment method, MasterCard MoneySend makes a better means for making or receiving payments via SMS, handset browsers, handset apps and the Internet. The platform has seen tremendous success in Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Consumers in 23 countries have been enjoying services on the platform including those in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India and the Philippines, etc. With these experiences as reference, MasterCard developed the MoneySend P2P platform for the US.

　　Furthermore, MasterCard has also developed the MasterCard Mobile Payment Gateway payment processing platform, which allows financial institutions and mobile network operators to use MasterCard's clearing network to offer end-to-end mobile payment solutions. The service enables consumers to use their handsets as mobile wallets, as well as link up with their MasterCard^® and Maestro^® card, debit card and pre-paid card accounts for making mobile payment.

　　Without a doubt, the conventional card-based electronic payment will prevail for a long time to come. However, more and more payments will be done with handsets or other mobile devices. There are new mobile payment technologies surfacing almost every year. Many milestone replacement technologies or revolution are the achievements of MasterCard's innovation laboratory in Dublin, Ireland and New York, US. These dedicated efforts of MasterCard will keep the company at the forefront of the mobile payment arena, as well as guarantee consumers worldwide more secure and convenient mobile payment experiences.