In the days of growing concern over consumer safety and data protection, mobile apps, especially those associated with location-oriented services, are front and center. Whether for scrutiny or praise, location-based apps are pioneering a new form of communication, marketing and interaction, all to scale. Driving the evolution around local businesses, location-based apps are full of promise, but can also strike fear in the hearts of many consumers.
Couple that with mobile payments, and you have an interesting discussion going on. It’s a topic I got to follow up on with TabbedOut CEO Rick Orr, discussing the strides his mobile app has made since launch. Following a path similar to Groupon and LivingSocial, Tabbedout has doubled its mobile POS service to more than 200 locations in over 90 cities. The Austin-based startup has raised $5.75 million in a Series A funding round earlier this month, and pushes forward with a MICROS partnership for additional mobile payment offerings.
“Tabbedout’s approach marks a radical shift in the mobile payment landscape,” said Michael L. Russo, Chief Technology Officer, MICROS. “We partnered with Tabbedout as the integrated solution to provide our merchants with the peace of mind of security encryption on the back end, coupled with the marketing capabilities and social media integration on the front end.”
Security is an important focus for Tabbedout, especially as it looks to build out a marketing platform around mobile payments and location. With data leaking out Android sideways, and Apple leery on details of its data collection methods and uses, consumers are wising up to this new mobile frontier, and it’s those consumers Tabbedout prioritizes with its app tools and features.
Being consumer-centric in this new era of data collection is “essential to approaching the mobile payments problem,” Orr tells me. “We have to have all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed. As platforms become more popular, new attack tactics are imminent. So we continue to monitor it closely; our data is encrypted and we adhere to the necessary standards.”
Sticking to existing credit and debit infrastructures is one way in which Tabbedout has maintained levels of security around its transactions, but its social transactions are equally important as Tabbedout looks to expand its appeal to merchants and local venue owners. Building a marketing tool around both types of transactions is where the app’s true value lies, and the potential is rather large.
For now, Tabbedout is increasing its focus on user generation, seeking new users while also building up its service on the business side. As these pieces come together, it will be important for Tabbedout to maintain its consideration on the consumer side, especially in this day and age.
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