Featured Comments By Karen Webster

Here, we bring together commentary from one of the world’s leading experts on emerging payments and a strategic advisor to CEOs and Boards of multinational players in the payments and commerce space – Karen Webster.

Mobile Goes Global At This Year’s Mobile World Congress
Raise your hand if you’re up for a balanced discussion of Bitcoin. Good. MPD CEO Karen Webster gives you her views on whether Bitcoin can ever be more than money, the substance behind the ‘it’s the protocol, stupid” mantra and whether there’s anything worth losing sleep over if you’re not enamored with autonomous agents. Dive in.

The Big Bitcoin Debate: Is Bitcoin More Than Money?
Raise your hand if you’re up for a balanced discussion of Bitcoin. Good. MPD CEO Karen Webster gives you her views on whether Bitcoin can ever be more than money, the substance behind the ‘it’s the protocol, stupid” mantra and whether there’s anything worth losing sleep over if you’re not enamored with autonomous agents. Dive in.

Cap One Joins ClearXchange
ClearXchange, the bank-controlled P2P network that can facilitate funds transfers between members in near real time, today added a new major player, Capital One. The moves opens up all sorts of possibilities, and questions. Market Platform Dynamics CEO Karen Webster did her darndest to get the details from ClearXchange CEO Mike Kennedy. Here’s what she learned.

How to Create the Mobile Payments Habit Here’s a controversial thought to start
your Monday: any mobile wallet or payments provider who isn’t playing in the quick service restaurant sector might as well stick a fork it in it. In this commentary, Market Platform Dynamics Karen Webster lays out the case for why this mobile payments use case forms the kind of habit that makes mobile payments stick and users loyal. She also offers some clues about last week’s Square and Whole Foods love fest. So, kick back and celebrate President’s Day by taking it all in.

Black Swans, Payments and 1982
We’ve all been on the lookout for the payments Black Swan for years and it finally arrived at the end of 2013. Yep, the Target Data Breach was the Black Swan that swam into the payments pond and could disrupt and reshape the course of payments for years to come. MPD CEO Karen Webster offers her perspective on this pivotal event, and the risks associated with barreling full speed ahead into a payments future dominated by a 30-year old technology that has changed little since it was first introduced in 1982.

As the Mobile Payments World Turns…
What do the mobile payments world and soap operas have in common? Well, more than you might think, says MPD CEO Karen Webster in this episode of As the Mobile Payments World Turns. From key execs’ comments during earnings season to news reports of imminent launches from key challengers, last week had the twists, turns and suspense that made everyone want to tune in and talk about it. See what she means.

What Andreessen Missed About Bitcoin
The debate over whether Bitcoin is the best thing to happen to payments since the debit card reached a pinnacle last week when celebrated VC and billion dollar company creator, Marc Andreessen, wrote why the cryptocurrency has a shot at going mainstream. Well, not so fast, says MPD CEO Karen Webster who offers her POV on a few of the things he said.

The Coming Physical Retail Death Spiral
What do physical retail and the newspaper industry have in common? The death spiral, which has decimated the newspaper industry and is revving up to do the same for physical retail. As MPD CEO Karen Webster writes, the loss of foot traffic over the holiday season is just one sign that the Grim Reaper has come a knockin’. So, grab a cuppa Joe and settle in to read her latest missive on what physical retail can learn from The New York Times.

Insiders Talk: A Devoted Look At Loyalty
In this month’s Mobile Insider discussion on Friday, Stephanie Swain, former Best Buy exec and now vice president of retail at Aimia shared her perspectives on customer loyalty. PYMNTS.com CEO Karen Webster offers a few of her own thoughts that came to mind following that discussion.

2013: The Year of All…Or Nothing at All
2013 was one for the history books. From Durbin to Target, the year was as transformative as they come for payments, commerce and everything in between. MPD’s Karen Webster walks through last year from open to close.

To access the archive of Webster’s articles, click the link

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