VeriSign, Inc. announced that it has entered into an agreement with Visa International to support the Visa mobile platform to advance the already fast-growing mobile commerce market, through mobile marketing campaigns and point-of-sale redemption of mobile offers.

“The Visa mobile platform provides mobile operators and financial institutions the opportunity to rapidly develop new mobile services utilizing the unique interactive features of handsets.” said Patrick Gauthier, senior vice president, innovation, Visa International. “We are excited to be working with VeriSign to combine secure payments with value-added promotional services. Our collaboration is designed to enable consumers to receive promotions and information relevant to their purchase experience anywhere via their mobile phones.”

As a result of the agreement, Visa will provide mobile offer management capabilities including the delivery of mobile coupons by leveraging VeriSign’s content delivery services. VeriSign will enable Visa, its members and merchants to create customized campaigns, mobile offers and promotion programs. Additionally, the service will help marketers understand the performance of their mobile campaigns potentially resulting in better returns on marketing dollars spent.

“Consumers are driving demand for new mobile commerce services and applications. They need to be able to access information and make purchases in a secure environment anywhere and on any device,” said Brian Matthews, vice president of industry marketing -- financial services, VeriSign. “We are excited to help Visa deliver the most compelling mobile payment experience.”

According to forecasts from a recent Juniper report, 2009 and 2010 will represent the start of the wider adoption of mobile payment applications and services and will result in close to $1 billion worth of worldwide payments being made via mobile by 2010.

Source: VeriSign