O2 Launches “O2 Wallet”

O2 announced last week the launch of O2 Wallet: a secure digital wallet service that will deliver the benefits of mobile money to its UK consumers.

O2 Wallet combines the following functions:

- Money Message – O2 Wallet enables consumers to securely transfer money to any UK mobile phone number as easily as sending a text. Money Messages allow consumers to make daily transfers of between £1 and £500.

- Shopping via your mobile – A barcode and search engine function compares the prices of millions of branded goods from more than 100 online retailers. In addition, consumers will receive daily discounts and deals via the “My Offers” icon.

- Your phone as your wallet – O2 Wallet enables consumers to digitise their existing debit and credit cards to pay for things via their mobile. Customers can load money into their O2 Wallet account via one of their debit cards, by receiving a Money Message or with cash at more than 30,000 locations including O2 stores, PayPoint and epay retail outlets. O2 Wallet’s transaction history helps consumers keep on top of their expenditure with texts alerts when the account balance changes; a 30-day payment history on the app; and a 12-month history online.

- O2 Money Account Card – O2 Wallet offers both a physical and a virtual O2 Money Account Card. Both are based on a Visa prepaid account. The virtual O2 Money Visa Account Card can be used for online shopping. Consumers can also apply for the physical O2 Money Visa Account Card to pay for things on the high street or withdraw cash from ATMs. This is a contactless card allowing tap-and-go payments.

James Le Brocq, Managing Director at O2 Money, coments: “O2 Wallet delivers the benefits of mobile money to more UK consumers than any other product or service currently available. With O2 Wallet, it’s easier to transfer money, track expenditure and pay swiftly and securely, all using your mobile. We believe it will transform the way people manage their finances and spend money.”

Additional functionality will soon enable consumers to use O2 Wallet to top-up mobile airtime, and buy train tickets.

Le Brocq continues: “We recognise that security is absolutely key. O2 Wallet has been trialled internally for months and has undergone extensive ‘stress-testing’ with security experts. In addition to PINs and passwords, all personal details and financial data are held on remote central servers rather than on the mobile device itself. This, we believe, is the safest and most secure way to deliver mobile payment services.”

Sandra Alzetta, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Visa Europe, adds: “We welcome the launch of O2 Wallet and are delighted to be enabling the m-commerce experience with a Visa prepaid card. The new service creates an easy and efficient online payment experience for mobile device users, supporting the continued growth of m-commerce in the UK, as well as encouraging contactless payments among those users who choose to take a physical card. This announcement is another step towards an integrated future where the way we pay reflects the full potential of these new technologies.”

Bub-bye! FT Switching Off iOS App

The Financial Times is preparing to kill off its iPad and iPhone app for good, signalling its final conversion from executable-app to web-app publishing.

The news publisher launched a HTML5 web app and pulled its iOS app off iTunes Store in mid-2011 but left the iOS version usable by subscribers with it already installed.

Now, however, the FT will render the iOS app unusable by its remaining users over the next month, as it completes its HTML5 migration. It is taking the step because only a relative handful of users remain and because it can no longer continue to maintain features inside the app. The publisher recently acquired Assanka, the development house which coded its HTML5 web app, and this week announced it had been rebranded “FT Labs”.

The outfit will “bring the FT further into the web development community”, according to founder Andrew Betts’ press release, and is staging an FT hack day on May 23 and 24. The web app user-base overtook that of the iOS app within three months of launch.

Rubicon Project Continues to Grow European Team

Rubicon Project is continuing to expand its European operations. New recruits Valerie Latronche and Alexandra Jarry, will support premium online publishers in Europe to monetise their digital advertising inventory using REVV, Rubicon Project’s real-time trading platform. REVV enables publishers to connect with buyers and sell ad inventory in real time through the best channel for the highest price possible, while protecting their brand.

In addition, after a year of working for Rubicon Project as director of publisher development, Julien Gardes is promoted to Country Manager, France.

His additional responsibilities will include managing and growing the Rubicon Project team in Paris and working with demand partners, such as agency trading desks, demand side platforms and online advertising networks. Gardes will continue to develop Rubicon Project’s client base in Southern Europe as well as recruiting further account managers for the France office and relocating the team to larger premises.

Joining Rubicon Project as an Account Director based in Paris and reporting to Gardes, Valerie Latronche will advise premium publishers in France on their online monetisation strategies.

She spent three years at Microsoft in Paris specialising in performance marketing. This included managing the Microsoft Media Network for two years analysing and optimising key campaigns followed by a year as Targeting and Performance Display Specialist. Prior to Microsoft, Latronche spent three years at MIVA as a Publisher Account Manager and started her career at Referencement.com

A French national, Alexandra Jarry, brings two years of marketing agency experience and a masters degree in international business management and marketing to her new role as a Yield Manager. She will support premium publishers across Europe from Rubicon Project’s London office.

Jay Stevens, General Manager and Vice President International, comments: “Both Valerie and Alex bring excellent understanding of strategies for maximising yields for the publishers we work with across Europe. In particular Valerie has many years of experience working at Microsoft and MIVA.

"Julien Gardes brings over a decade of online advertising experience to Rubicon Project, including many years of working of the demand side of our industry. In the past year he has become a trusted advisor for publishers in France, Spain and The Netherlands and has been instrumental in bringing on more than thirty of France’s premium publishers onto the REVV platform, including TF1, Nouvel Observateur and Dailymotion. There’s simply no one better suited to driving the market towards real time trading in France.”

The Telegraph Signs up to AdGent Digital’s Tablet Ad Platform AdTouch

AdGent Digital, a global media and technology company, has signed up Telegraph Media Group to its recently launched tablet-based advertising platform, AdTouch. The newspaper is now running AdTouch ad units for users accessing their content via iPads.

The AdTouch +Slide unit, gives tablet users visiting www.telegraph.co.uk the ability to engage with ads “tablet-style” using all of the tactile functions of the iPad including tap, touch, slide, pinch and zoom to reveal new content. This experience enables users to engage with content without being forced to leave the page.

Cameron Yuill, CEO and founder of AdGent Digital, comments: “We created the AdTouch platform so publishers could fill their ad unit inventory with iPad compatible ads. We are firm believers in the future of the tablet as the premier device to view content. Research by Gartner predicted that there will be 665 million tablets in use by 2016. We created AdTouch for brands to tell their story in a much more creative way using all the functionality the iPad allows. We are excited that TMG has embraced AdTouch which enables their advertisers to use everything the iPad has to offer.”

James Brown, Digital Sales Director, TMG, adds: “At TMG we continuously strive to drive innovation and creativity. AdTouch ticks both these boxes through combining the use of highly impactful rich media creative and harnessing the power of touch screen handheld devices, this enables users to have an immersive experience and truly interact with the advertiser brand.”

AdTouch uses HTML5 IAB standard-size ads to serve touchable, non-intrusive rich media ads.
AdGent recently announced its AdTouch launch with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) “Earth Hour” campaign.

Criteo Launches “Code of Duty” Competition to Find Europe’s Finest Engineers

Criteo, a global leader in performance display advertising, announced last week the launch of its “Code of Duty” competition. Back for a second year, the initiative aims to attract engineers to the company by putting them through a series of complex algorithmic tests. The competition also highlights the company’s recruitment drive in line with continued business growth throughout 2012.

Criteo is looking for approximately 100 engineers to strengthen its Research and Development team based at CriteoLabs’ Paris office. This European R&D hub has already attracted researchers from all over the world, and aims to boost the performance of the predictive algorithms that Criteo applies to digital advertising. This technological progress is of fundamental importance for the company, which is dependent on innovation to ensure that its campaigns for advertisers are even more effective.

To attract brilliant and highly-motivated candidates, the company has set up a coding competition which invites participants to solve a complex algorithmic problem using any of the following computer programmes: Java, C++, C#, C, Javascript, Pascal, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, VB.NET, Objective-C or Lua. The competition is open to applicants across the European Union.

Franck Le Ouay, Co-founder of Criteo, comments: “We’re proud of the success of last year’s ‘Code of Duty’ competition and are pleased to repeat this innovative contest, as it enables us to attract the best talent. This year, we’re looking for 250 people, including about 100 for R&D. Although our headquarters are in Palo Alto, we’ve chosen Paris as our research centre because France is a very attractive location in terms of innovation.”

To register and for more information about Code of Duty, visit www.code-of-duty.com