Mobile Phone Stickers to Replace Membership Cards for Wide Range of Retailers

Aix-En-Provence, France, Nov. 9, 2009–INSIDE Contactless, the world leader in advanced open-standard contactless chip technologies, today announced it is providing critical infrastructure components to Taggo, a membership card aggregator and storefront, for the innovative service Taggo will launch in Singapore and other parts of South East Asia early next year. Using ID stickers based on INSIDE’s PicoPass® 2KS contactless memory chip, contactless readers based on INSIDE’s M210-2G proximity coupler and INSIDE’s integration and adoption services, Taggo has developed a convenient and affordable way for mobile phone stickers to replace plastic loyalty and membership cards from a variety of retail merchants.

“By adding mobile tap-and-go convenience and one-step enrollment to membership card programs in a very simple and cost-effective way, Taggo presents a very compelling value proposition to consumers and retailers: no more fat wallets,” said Aneace Haddad, CEO and founder of Taggo. “Retailers want to expand program membership and use, but are frustrated by the tendency of existing customers to leave cards at home and the increasing difficulty of attracting new customers who don’t want to be bothered filling out yet another form for another card. Using just the one Taggo sticker and their existing mobile phone, customers can quickly subscribe to as many membership programs as they want.”

A recent report by researchers at Colloquy showed that each U.S. household has an average of 14.1 loyalty program memberships, but less than half–only 6.2 on average–are active. According to Haddad, the fundamental problem with membership programs today is that people don’t want to carry around all those cards. As the loyalty industry worries about convincing consumers of the value of their programs, Haddad believes the solution to greater program use is putting all the cards on a mobile phone where customers will always have them.

Thanks to Taggo’s platform-as-a-service model, companies that provide CRM systems and services can easily offer retailers the ability to add their card programs to the Taggo storefront, with little or no capital expenditure. Customers add a small PicoPass-based Taggo sticker to their mobile phone and join programs through a simple SMS text message or by browsing the my-Taggo website (http://www.my-taggo.com), and all the enrollment details are automatically sent to the retailer as if the customer had filled out an enrollment form. Customers tap their phones at the point of sale to enjoy the same benefits as presenting a plastic card.

CRM suppliers integrate Taggo as Value Added Resellers (VARs). Taggo’s first VARs currently serve retailers across the region, in Singapore, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and other countries.

“Taggo is taking a unique approach to the market, one with huge upside potential for INSIDE as Taggo continues to enlist more VARs in more regions of the world, and we look forward to working with Taggo on their infrastructure needs as they seek to expand their system globally,” said Goh Say Yeow, executive vice president sales and managing director, Asia for INSIDE Contactless. “Aneace Haddad is a pioneer of the smartcard industry and an innovator with a remarkable track record, and we are excited to be working with him on his latest venture.”

The initial Taggo deployment is expected to begin in Singapore in time for the holiday shopping season, with full rollout of the service scheduled for early next year.

About Taggo

Taggo is a card aggregator and storefront that provides a convenient and affordable way to use a mobile phone to replace plastic membership and loyalty cards. Customers no longer need to carry as many cards in their wallets, and can join new programs with a simple text message, without the hassle of filling out forms. Retailers can sign up new customers easier, at lower cost, and can achieve higher usage than with plastic cards that tend to be left at home. Taggo’s patent-pending technology works with all mobile phones and carriers. Leading providers of loyalty, membership, gift, prepaid and access card solutions market Taggo to retailers and other organizations as a feature of their products and services. Visit http://www.my-taggo.com for more information.

About INSIDE Contactless

INSIDE Contactless is the global leader in open-standard contactless payment and Near Field Communication (NFC) semiconductors and software that power the next generation of payment, transit, identity and access control applications. The company’s intelligent, microprocessor-based platforms offer the flexibility to be embedded in smart cards, mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices, documents, badges and other items to support a wide range of innovative contactless applications and bring new levels of convenience to users. INSIDE has delivered more than 300 million contactless platforms worldwide to customers and partners that include many of the leading payment card and mobile phone manufacturers, systems integrators and financial institutions. With a portfolio of 60 families of patents, including several essential NFC patents, the company has played a leading role in NFC and contactless innovation. INSIDE is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, with offices in Shanghai, Singapore, Warsaw, Seoul and Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit http://www.insidecontactless.com.

Contacts

INSIDE company contact:

Geraldine Sauniere
Marcom Director
+33 (0) 4 42 39 33 01
gsauniere@insidefr.com

For INSIDE Contactless:

Patrick Corman
Corman Communications, LLC
(650) 326-9648
patrick@cormancom.com
http://www.cormancom.com

For Taggo:

Aaron Koh
+65 9489 4557
aaron@my-taggo.com