The rise of the virtual wallet

It’s predicted that 1 in 6 mobile device will be contactless by 2014. With London being the first European city to go contactless in time for the Olympics you might be under the impression that we’re ahead of the game.

Not in the slightest. It’s been around in Japan and Korea for several years now, which probably comes as no surprise. However it’s with the developing nations where huge progress has been made, driven by their poor access to banks.

In Kenya 50% of the population pay for bills, food and even taxis through their mobile phone. While in Ghana, 88% have access to a mobile money service.

So while the developing nations embrace the mobile wallet, we're still partial for the leather variety.

Technology is a young persons game…?

There are 21 million people in the UK who are 50 years and over, yet very few technology related briefs are written for this audience in mind. What do they know about Tweeting, Poking, Posting or Tagging. And as for using their mobiles OMG they have NFC.

Not so. One in four internet users is over 50, 42% access social media sites (which goes up to 50% for women over 55), a third visit websites such as YouTube to watch free content, while 21% of mobile users who access the internet through their phone are over 45 years.

So when a brief comes in identifying the obvious audience of savvy 16-34 year olds, it might be worth a little challenge back to your client….

Nice one Em

After more than four months of dedicated training, Mworks very own Emma Compton [right] crossed the line hand-in-hand with sister Rachel to finish her first London Marathon in a hugely impressive 3 hours 59 minutes. They raised a massive £3500 for the charity Shelter and as she crossed the line wearing Adidas running shoes she got an extra £40 towards her chosen charity - part of a nice little offer mworks did for Adidas for every charity runner.

Is social shopping the next big trend?

We think so. Groupon fever has hit the UK with the site experiencing a 540% increase in visits since September. Vouchercloud has been downloaded 1.2m times since its launch in Feb 2010. Even House of Fraser and M&S are piloting personalised vouchers sent to your mobile as soon as you’re within spitting distance of their stores.

However the social shopping trend will soon move from discounts into shopping communities. With brands such as Shopwithyourfriends and Plurchase in the US taking online shopping from a personal into a friendship space. Here, Westfield has dabbled with a Tweet Mirror, which lets your friends instantly feedback on how good or grim you look to prompt purchase. It’s only a matter of time until Tesco cotton on and your mum will be critiquing your choice of marg…

Young people are an egotistical bunch…

A study by a Dutch research agency asserts that young people are consumed by “growing tide of self-satisfaction”. Instant gratification of one’s own needs and a certain apathy towards needs of others are typical of the youngest generation.

Not so fast my Dutch friends. A study conducted over here reveals that our 16-24 year olds are a pretty optimistic and altruistic bunch. Even though they think that the government cuts will hurt their age bracket most are prepared to protect OAPs from spending cuts, favouring cuts to education rather than health. So put that in your pipe and smoke it (in a legal café of course).