Bling Nation, the fledgling U.S. mobile-payments company, may be in the midst of a course adjustment, as it seeks to increase its visibility and broaden its value to merchants and consumers alike.
In just the past few months, the Silicon Valley company has forged a partnership with online-payments pioneer PayPal, introduced a new service to help merchants connect with Facebook users and announced deals with both a relatively large payment processing network and the leading provider of point-of-sale terminals.
The partnerships, say payments industry analysts, are fairly typical of start-up technology companies striving to establish a foothold. The moves are also indicative of the fast-changing nature of the emerging mobile-payments industry. Yet whether the 3-year-old company will be able to capitalize on them to swiftly expand its network of merchants that accept Bling mobile payments remains a question.
