Newsroom

MasterCard is encouraging developers to come up with ideas for mobile payment innovation.

The international credit card company has announced that it will be releasing Open Application Programming Interfaces (OAPIs) to software developers around the world to encourage the creation of new types of e-commerce applications related to making payments while on the move.

This business strategy is the brainchild of the newly created MasterCard Labs and it has been launched alongside a brand developer portal which will allow developers to access MasterCard’s OAPIs easily.

"We are excited about tapping into the ingenuity of software developers around the globe to help create the next generation of game-changing payment applications," explained Josh Peirez MasterCard’s chief innovation officer

"We feel this will unleash innovation within our industry especially in the burgeoning areas of e-commerce and mobile payments."

Developers will be able to collaborate with MasterCard engineers as part of a forum, which has been incorporated into the portal.

The credit card company has also revealed that it is planning to open up as many as 20 of its other services to innovation software designers in the future.

MasterCard research and development executive Garry Lyons said: "Over the past few years, we have used some of our Open APIs internally to create groundbreaking new iPhone applications, such as MasterCard ATM Hunter and MasterCard Easy Savings.

"Opening these and other OAPIs to the global development community developers will provide developers the opportunity to leverage MasterCard's leading payment platforms and come up with new ideas that may not have been previously considered or thought possible."

By using OAPIs MasterCard hopes that developers will create new applications including mobile games, eWallets, e-commerce sites and payroll systems.

MasterCard Worldwide processes over 22 billion transactions each year and operates in more than 210 countries.

Return to article list