I did some analysis of the news in the payment industry – to get a generic feel of what happened in the industry. Here are some interesting finds. While this may not give a very accurate, we can still get a rough idea. These  were analyzed from the news items collected between Jan 2011 and Jan 2012.

Let us start with the number of occurrences of each country names in the news articles…

Country name occurrences in the news

While the US may be trailing behind Europe in terms of the emerging trends, there is still a substantial number of activities happening in the industry in the US.  It may be because of the market size, number of players or the number of activities. Ignore the actual number listed in the graph and just look at the relative sizes. UK leads the pack in that part of the world.

Now, let us look at in terms of payment instruments.  I have considered only top 6 instruments for this analysis. No surprises here.

I would have loved to add virtual currency or digital money, but those were very negligible.  Even though the number of Direct Debit and Credit transactions (ACH) are much higher, it is not widely talked about in the retail context.

Payment Instruments mentioned in the news

And now, the modes of payments..  every second word is mobile!

What kind of payments made most news?

Company names.. the VISA and Mastercard brands really stand out.  Paypal, with lots of growth, new products, acquisitions made a substantial impact. Square really stands out in the start up segment.

Companies making the most in the news

and okay. If you want a quick sense of what mattered most and where in the industry, here you go….  2011 in a wordshell!

Gist of news in 2011 in the industry

Have fun!