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Mastercard is currently testing a new technology at a SF WeWork location to allow customers to be automatically charged for the amount of time they're sitting at their desk or conference room, which they are calling "metered payments". Mastercard is looking to deploy metered payments more broadly for things like coffee, service kiosks, and other retail opportunities.
Mastercard said it plans to scale the technology in the six to 18 months. For them, it’s the beginning of capabilities to transform payments in retail and other sectors. On the real-time usage billing, Wyper added that it can be used for utilities and expenses in shared living spaces, where customers may benefit from real-time pricing. For retail, the technology could enable situations where customers would buy items in a store and walk out with no need for a checkout counter. Mastercard acknowledged that many retailers have expressed interest, but wouldn’t say which ones. “On the idea of real-time pricing based on the use of an asset, and similarly on the retail component, we see opportunities to deploy that within a number of different retail settings — retailers in the grocery or community space, for example.”
http://www.tearsheet.co/payments/mastercard-is-testing-instant-payments-at-wework
