Beenz.com And Mondex Team on Smart Card For Commerce
Beenz.com and Mondex International Ltd., a division ofMasterCard International Inc., said yesterday that they are
jointly developing a smart card capable of carrying both
Mondex's own digital cash and beenz. Beenz are "value tokens"
that users accumulate while browsing or shopping at certain
Web sites, including The Motley Fool and MP3.com, and then
redeem for products and services at other participating
Internet venues. The goal is to drive use of beenz and Mondex
E-cash as a standard currency for making transactions not
only over the Web, via PCs and wireless devices, but also in
the brick-and-mortar world.
"Now beenz can be exchanged in any environment where the
smart card can be used," says Charles Cohen, founder and
chief technology officer of beenz.com. "We hope to see them
downloaded at stores, mass transit, fitness clubs--the
opportunities are embarrassing." Beenz and Mondex's E-cash
will be complementary to each other: The two companies hope
to enlist merchants and service providers to offer beenz for
transactions completed with Mondex E-cash and vice versa. The
companies say participating merchants will benefit from
increased customer interest and traffic.
"It is a great strategic move for beenz," says Melissa Shore,
an analyst at Jupiter Communications. "This collaboration
will lend them credibility as an international Web currency,
not simply a system to gauge online loyalty."
The smart card is planned to be developed using Multos, a
high security, multiapplication operating system. It is
scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2000.
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