Apple Pay and Samsung Pay are headed to China, Evernote kills Skitch on everything but Mac,
Facebook is the most used app of the year, and more...
It's Friday, December 18th, and this is Crunch Report.
Microsoft announced today it's buying Metanautix, a big-data startup that came out of stealth
in 2014.
The company was backed by $7 million in capital, notably incuding venture firm Sequoia, although
terms of the deal with Microsoft weren't disclosed.
Microsoft says it plans to fold Metanautix into its “data platform, including SQL Server
and the Cortana Analytics Suite.”
But that's about all we know.
Target may launch its own mobile wallet as soon as next year, according to sources speaking
to Reuters.
This would put Target in direct competition with Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay.
It's a lot like what Walmart is doing with Walmart Pay, a feature within its own smartphone
app, which is rolling out in the first half of 2016.
Also like Walmart, Target belongs to the retailer consortium developing a mobile wallet to compete
with Apple Pay, called CurrentC.
So this points even more toward companies moving away from CurrentC and developing their
own solutions instead.
Target already has a popular app for mobile coupons called Cartwheel, which includes its
own in-store item locator, and uses beacon technology to ping consumers about deals.
Target has reportedly been in discussions with credit card companies for its mobile
wallet and is considering using scanning technology to link the wallet to point-of-sale transactions..
perhaps integrated within Cartwheel?
While we're on mobile payments..
Apple Pay and Samsung Pay are both coming to China!
The companies each struck a partnership with China UnionPay, that's the government-approved
organization that issues all the bank cards in the country.
And after passing regulatory tests, the payment services should be live early next year.
China is already Apple’s second-largest market after the U.S., with revenue up 99%
to $12.51 billion in the most recent quarter.
China UnionPay has 260 million customers...
if Apple can make inroads against mobile payment services include Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s
WePay, which is available through WeChat (which is China’s most popular messaging app),
Apple's got something here.
However, Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly met with Alibaba founder and chairman Jack Ma
last year to discuss integrating Apple Pay with Alipay...which has about 350 million
users of its own.
Now, China UnionPay isn't relying on Apple or Samsung to build its mobile payments strategy.
It's expanding its own QuickPass to create bank card alternatives, like wearable devices
that store encrypted financial info.
Earlier this week, its subsidiary UnionPay Network Payment announced a 10-year joint
venture with UK mobile commerce company Powa to launch PowaTag UnionPay.
Apple Pay is now available in the U.S., UK, Canada, and Australia, with China, iSpain,
Singapore, and Hong Kong rolling out next year.
When Evernote bought popular annotation app Skitch back in 2011, I was like, great.
How's this going to screw up the easiest way I know how to mock up an image?
Well, today Skitch is being taken back behind the shed and put down as a standalone app
everywhere but the Mac app.
That means Skitch for Windows, Windows Touch, iOS, and Android will no longer be available
for download and won't be supported after January 22nd.
Evernote is also sunsetting its reading extension "Clearly" and its Pebble app.
Evernote Food, the company’s dedicated recipe app, which was nicely done but always felt
off-brand, was shut down at the end of September.
Evernote's clearly cutting some costs ans streamlining here during an uncertain time
for the company....long-time CEO Phil Libin and COO Linda Kozlowski both left the company
this year.
Facebook has held onto the #1 app installed on U.S. smartphones based on the average number
of unique users, reports Nielsen, and its messaging app Messenger has been crowned the
title of fastest-growing app of 2015.
Facebook forced users to install Messenger in spring 2014 by removing chat from its main
app, and some users were upset about that, but it worked... in 2014 Messenger use rose
242%.. and in 2015, it grew 31% in users over 2014.
Facebook itself has more than 126 million average unique users each month, up 8 percent
over last year where it was also the top app.
YouTube isn't far behind, with 97 million average unique users each month, up 5 percent
over last year.
Other app successes include Google (Search) with 95 million mobile users, Google Play
with 89.7 million, Google Maps with 75.1 million, Instagram with 55.4 million, and Apple Maps
with 44.4 million,
That’s the report for today.
I’m Sarah Lane.
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