American Express 2011 Annual Report Download - page 9

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R
Those changes are happening in our so-called traditional businesses. Then
there are wholly new opportunities being pursued by our Enterprise
GrowthGroup.
We launched Enterprise Growth in 2010 to help accelerate our progress in
developing alternative payments products, reach customers beyond our
traditional base and create new revenue opportunities. This work is well
under way.
In March, we launched SERVE, our new digital payments and commerce
platform, which gives consumers new ways to spend, send and receive
money. SERVE lets consumers make purchases and person-to-person
payments online, via mobile devices and at millions of merchants who accept
American Expresscards.
In market trials held during the year, some people told us that they never
thought American Express was for them, and that SERVE was a useful, if
surprising, alternative. That was actually music to our ears, as we look for the
opportunity to fit the right products to an expanding customerbase.
We quickly signed 15 partners who are embedding SERVE into their ecosystems
and offerings, including Ticketmaster, Verizon, Sprint and AOL. And we
just announced an agreement with Lianlian Group, which will use SERVE’s
technology to power a digital wallet that will be oered to millions of consumers
inChina.
We are still in the early stages of SERVE’s development, with a long way to go
to build the kind of digital capabilities and scale that will be critical to the
platform’s ultimate success. But we are encouraged by the progress we’veseen.
Other notable launches from Enterprise
Growth this year included a game-changing
prepaid card in the U.S. that has no purchase
or maintenance fees, as well as our first-ever
prepaid card in India. We also launched a
joint venture with vente-privee.com to bring
Europe’s leader in online private sales of
luxury goods to the U.S. market.
In November, American Express announced
a multiyear initiative to invest $100million
in early-stage start-ups that are developing
innovative digital commerce technologies.
To Our Shareholders
Investments and
Eciency
Our Transformation
The Digital
Convergence
A Challenging
Environment
Thank You
DIGITAL DEALS
Our innovative Facebook
program “Link, Like, Love”
delivers oers to
cardmembers based on
their “likes.”
AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
7