First Data, one of the world’s largest electronic commerce and payment processing service providers has recently acquired mobile loyalty program startup, Perka.

Perka works with participating merchants by creating digital loyalty programs on the customer’s smartphone via their app. Perka currently utilizes 2 loyalty programs punch cards, that are mostly used for food establishments and point programs intended for retailers.

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The news of the acquisition comes shortly after First Data partnered with mobile payment service provider, Clover Network, earlier this month to develop POS mobile payment stations.

These partnerships and acquisitions with mobile-based entities have left us wondering what First Data’s plans are with the ever-growing mobile payments market. We have lately been seeing companies expanding their Mcommerce presence and changing their strategies to stay up- to-date with mobile trends.

Recent research shows that 55% of the time that was spent on online retail stores was done off either a smartphone or tablet. These numbers show the immense popularity of mobile devices for everyday internet use. It is only natural to see the potential in mobile devices, and to develop more native applications to accommodate their customers, or in First Data’s case, acquire them.

We have been covering quite a lot of news relating to mobile payments, and we are sure that we are going to see quite a lot more. From what we see, mobile payments are not the future of online payments, but a large part of the present.

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