This is a proposal to create a W3C Web Payments Activity. This is a new activity.
The focus of the Web Payments Activity is to explore how the Web could ease payments on the Web for users (payers) and merchants (payees), and how to establish a common ground for payment service providers on the Open Web Platform.
The Web Payments Interest Group provides a forum for Web Payments technical discussions to identify use cases and requirements for existing and/or new specifications to ease payments on the Web for users (payers) and merchants (payees), and to establish a common ground for payment service providers on the Web Platform. The overall objective of this group is to identify and leverage the conditions for greater uptake and wider use of Web Payments through the identification of standardization needs to increase interoperability between the different stakeholders and the different payment methods. Their work may include the following Interest Group Note deliverables:
The work also includes review, comments and provision of requirements to standards and other related documents developed by W3C and external groups related to Web Payments
A significant number of existing W3C members from industry have expressed interest in this work, ranging from large enterprises to start-ups as well as non-profit and academic institutions. Interest includes existing Community Groups such as the Web Payments Community Group and Web Payments Charter Development Community Group that was formed after the W3C Web Payments Workshop in March 2014 to develop the IG charter.
Various stakeholders from the payments industry (banks, card networks, payment processors, regulators, etc.) that are not yet W3C members have also expressed interest to join this work.
Acceptance of this proposal will result in a Web Payments Activity through 30th September 2017.
This Activity Proposal follows section 5 of the Process Document.
Payment is an essential element of trade and commerce, and the explosion of e-commerce in the last two decades has led to sales on the Web topping $1 trillion in 2012 . However, behind these impressive numbers, the payment landscape is quickly changing, and new challenges are appearing. For instance, the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 72% across all devices, and 97% on mobile. A variety of factors are limiting the potential of ecommerce, from the high level fraud related to credit card payments (Target’s cautionary tale ), to the fragmentation of payment solutions available on the Web but not available on all merchant sites or on all devices.
At the same time, there is a growing interest from businesses to find alternatives to business models based of advertisement. These alternatives include e.g. in-app payments, or micropayments that are today challenging due to a variety of factors such as heterogeneity and number of payment options to support, or the inability for existing payment systems to cope with very small payments.
In order to address these issues, and for greater interoperability in the area of payments, the vision behind this activity is to enable:
The creation of a Web Payments Activity is a goal of many members of W3C. The W3C Web Payments Workshop was held 24-25 March 2014 and attracted significant mobile, banking industry and payment industry interest, and led to the creation of the Web Payments Charter Development Community Group that produced the Web Payment Interest Group Draft Charter. The Workshop (see the final report)) and the CG led to outreach to major stakeholders in the payment industry, that are not yet part of the W3C community (see workshop participants and CG participants). It is expected that the creation of this activity leads to these players joining W3C.
The scope of the activity encompasses payments and financial transactions on the Web and standards at the W3C. An interest group, to serve as a steering committee for the activity is proposed. One or more Community Groups may relate their work to the Web Payments Activity. This activity proposal describes only groups with proposed charters at the present moment.
One Interest Group is proposed that the Team believes deserve the highest priority within the Web Payments Activity and that represent the best use of available W3C resources. Apart from group mentioned below, it is expected that the definition of the Web Payments roadmap will identify technical areas that requires new developments, leading to the creation of technical working groups or extension of existing groups. We expect new technical working ng group to be proposed during the first quarter of 2015.
The mission of the Web Payments Interest Group, part of the Web Payments Activity, is to provide a forum for Web Payments technical discussions to identify use cases and requirements for existing and/or new specifications to ease payments on the Web for users (payers) and merchants (payees), and to establish a common ground for payment service providers on the Web Platform. The overall objective of this group is to identify and leverage the conditions for greater uptake and wider use of Web Payments through the identification of standardization needs to increase interoperability between the different stakeholders and the different payment methods.
The overall resource commitment for this Activity will be of 0.3 FTE as a result of this proposal.
The Web Payments Activity provides an opportunity to share perspectives on the topic addressed by this charter. W3C reminds all participants of their obligation to comply with patent disclosure obligations as set out in Section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.
The proposed duration of the Activity is through 30 September 2017.
| Group | Chair | Charter | Team Contact | FTE | Charter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web Payments Interest Group (Proposed) | Erik Anderson, Bloomberg
David Ezell, NACS |
Web Payments Interest Group Charter | Stephane Boyera | 0.3 | Proposed until 30 September 2017 |
Copyright© 2014 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang), All Rights Reserved.