The mobile market is growing at an exponential rate, so the company that rings a bell with us will matter. Obopay has chosen a great way to sustain their competitive edge. Ultimately, brand will matter most!

Isnt this what Kushcash is doing?

I met someone in London last week - who described to me why he wouldn’t bother looking at any one else except Paypal services but I still feel its a wide open market.

Like YouTube did it for videos you never know KushCash/OboPay could be the next thing for Mobile Payments. It certainly seems to have the potential

Paypal is the dominant player in tha market space.
These other upstarts might perish in no time as this service is neither a required nor a critical service.

As a consumer, I’d trust a bank who launches such services in contrast to 3rd party vendors. Seems like firethorn wireless will become the dominant backbone for all financial institutions.

damn Nick. you are the busiest blogger in the blogosphere. thanks for all the good posts.

I haven’t used Billmonk yet, but Billster.net is going to get a trial when me and my flatmates have to settle up our expenses next week.

Even though this looks good - isn’t the point of billster to net debts between people who know each other? Why use a payment service if you can just exchange cash? And the amount of business Obopay does would decline the more effective billmonk was in netting ….

Perhaps I’m missing something, or Obopay are just buying a user-base to feed into their platform.

Chuck Groom and Gaurav Oberoi told me in interviews today that they invested less than $500,000 in BillMonk — including the salaries that they gave up when they left Amazon.com to start the company.

Both also said that they made money on the deal, though they didn’t say how much. They also are receiving stock in Obopay.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.....110980.asp

John Cook
Seattle P-I

ATT Techcrunch guys… this is totally off topic, but please read the following article and take it to heart.

3 Reasons Why Snap Preview is Ruining Your Blog, and Hurting Your Readership
http://performancing.com/node/5721

Thanks,
Verful

Don’t forget about Buxfer. Probably the slickest (UI-wise) of this bunch.

They can also be big as long as they maintain good customer service.

“Like YouTube did it for videos you never know KushCash/OboPay could be the next thing for Mobile Payments. It certainly seems to have the potential ” - Raj Anand

Raj totally agreed. 3 Billion cell phones and growing….I would definitely take my chances.

dominate is a verb

Based on really low traffic (see Compete and Alexa), BillMonk was DOA as a standalone service. Perhaps as a feature of Obopay the founders will get some value for their investment. At least they got jobs!

How much traction Obopay has? 100K users? More?

please join the very long line of digital payment roadkill

I find it interesting how some posters believe Pay Pal is the dominate player in this mobile payments space. They have ZERO distribution with mobile operators and are forever locked into consumer minds as an EBay purchasing tool. In addition, while PayPal announced their service last year (same time Obopay Launched), they have not generated and traction. While Obopay clearly has, by doing deals with two leading MVNO’s ( Amp’d & Helio ). Secured Strategic funding with tier one VC’s the likes of Redpoint & Qualcomm. Furthermore they announced a new office in India, one of the hottest mobile money markets in the world and now the very savvy acquisition of Bill Monk. Also in response to IT Bankers comments, “As a consumer, I’d trust a bank who launches such services in contrast to 3rd party vendors” Do you really see a “BANK” doing anything with the likes of PayPal? Moreover, do you think a bank would allow Cingular aka Firethorn to control the entire mobile banking ecosystem? My money’s on Obopay, they are doing all the right things.

#16 MR I

Seems like you are affiliated with Obopay. Amp’d & Helio both are struggling. Does raising venture fund mean Obopay is going to succeed? Just think how much money Redpoint has burnt on Amp’d?

How may users Obopay has? 100K? more?

Thanks.

I signed up for Obopay a few months ago and LOVE the service. It is the only one that allows me to send and receive money in real time and works on EVERY carrier and device unlkine the others. I also trust it b/c it came with a prepaid MasterCard that allows me to withdraw my cash anytime from any ATM machine.

I am a big PayPal and eBay user but will never use their mobile product whatsoever. They are great for basic Web shopping but not mobile. I looked at PayPal Mobile and others and not a single one of them offered real-time money transfer, worked on all devices, or allowed me to withdraw my funds.

SEE ABOVE:

employee comment……..lame……..really lame……. ZZZZZZzZZzzZZZzzz

What does Obo stand for? Can I use them in my country (The Philippines)?

I think MR I and/or mobilemobile are very likely Obopay employees, but I do think they raise a couple of key points (with some added qualification). Amp’d and Helio definitely are both struggling, and it is certainly true that more VC funding definitely does NOT necessarily = success in the start-up game.

That being said, I don’t see PayPalMobile expanding its service into other countries yet. Obopay moving into India first is a KEY strategic move, ESPECIALLY considering the market’s growth rate.

The other thing is that Obopay’s service is, objectively/factually speaking, much better than PayPalMobile’s (I’ve used both). The main reason why I say this is wait time: you get your money with Obopay in real-time, while with PPM it takes 4-5 days. The whole idea with mobile payments is INSTANT accessibility to money, and PayPalMobile just doesn’t allow for that.

Add to that PPM’s compatibility issues with a fairly wide variety of phones, and I still think on balance Obopay has the edge in this specific market.

Justin, let’ss add u to the obopay employee list too…

Bottomline, it’s just a matter of time before obopay enters the RIP list….

The buzz is dead and I hear no one mention mobile payments and startups around it anymore…
Paypal wouldn’t care as they have other venues of growth too… In fact that might even shut the service down…

In fact banks are building stratergic partnerships with stratetic companies like firethorn and mfoundry (these companies are run by seasoned banking executives which is a key requirement for success and strategy)….

It’s a matter of few more months before reality bites….. Till then another few million $$$$ of the investors money will be burned by such startups….

investwise, your “keen insight” proves itself completely wrong: I’m no Obopay employee. What I typed is very honestly my objective assessment. If I did work for the company, why would I mention potential downsides to their business model? That wouldn’t make too much sense, now would it?

You’re also wrong about the buzz being dead. Most of the tech blogs have news of this merger at the forefront, since it was only a few days ago. Here are a few of the links:

http://fallontrendpoint.blogsp.....meets.html

http://www.moconews.net/entry/.....:22:04:00Z

http://nanotech.lemonup.com/Mi.....-Billmonk/

Really work in the future on knowing the actuality of what you’re saying before you decide to spout it off in public, alright there champ? Otherwise no one will take what you say seriously, and rightfully so.

Justin, all arguments aside…let’s revisit after 8 months… I’ll give it a max time of 6 months before the investors will make a decision to put this to rest….

Fair enough. Time will definitely tell…

there’s definitely potential in what Obopay’s doing. there are a lotta cell phones out there, and life keeps speeding up…getting money fast is key.

not so sure you’re right on this one investwise

obopay’s expanding into India already. i think they’ve got something…there’s too much of a market

used obopay to get money which covered my gf’s flowers today…dont know how i wouldve gotten cash another way…

lame employee promotion Justin, Jagdish and Randy - lame

I concur speddowkross, all is left for them is propaganda…. best of luck to you employees hehehehe

@Justin

“I think MR I and/or mobilemobile are very likely Obopay employees, ”

Justin, you jackass, you work for obopay.