MasterCard 2015 Annual Report Download - page 17

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customers. Our advertising plays an important role in building brand visibility, usage and overall preference among cardholders
globally. Our “Priceless®” advertising campaign, which has run in 53 languages in 112 countries worldwide, promotes MasterCard
usage benefits and acceptance, markets MasterCard payment products and solutions and provides MasterCard with a consistent,
recognizable message that supports our brand around the globe. We have extended Priceless to create experiences through
three platforms to drive brand preference - Priceless Cities® provides cardholders across all of our regions with access to special
experiences and offers in various cities, Priceless Causes® provides cardholders with opportunities to support philanthropic
causes, and Priceless Surprises® provides cardholders with unexpected and unique surprises.
Our Revenue Sources
We generate revenues by assessing our customers primarily based on GDV on the cards and other devices that carry our brands
and from the fees we charge to our customers for providing transaction processing and other payment-related products and
services. Our net revenues are classified into five categories: domestic assessment fees, cross-border volume fees, transaction
processing fees, other revenues and rebates and incentives (contra-revenue).
See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Revenues” in Part II, Item 7 for
more detail about our revenue, GDV and processed transactions.
Intellectual Property
We own a number of valuable trademarks that are essential to our business, including MasterCard, Maestro and Cirrus, through
one or more affiliates. We also own numerous other trademarks covering various brands, programs and services offered by
MasterCard to support our payment programs. Trademark and service mark registrations are generally valid indefinitely as long
as they are used and/or properly maintained. Through license agreements with our customers, we authorize the use of our
trademarks in connection with our customers’ issuing and merchant acquiring businesses. In addition, we own a number of
patents and patent applications relating to payments solutions, transaction processing, smart cards, contactless, mobile,
electronic commerce, security systems and other matters, many of which are important to our business operations. Patents are
of varying duration depending on the jurisdiction and filing date.
Competition
We compete in the global payments industry against all forms of payment including:
• cash and checks;
• card-based payments, including credit, charge, debit, ATM and prepaid products, as well as limited-use products such
as private label;
• contactless, mobile and e-commerce payments, as well as cryptocurrency; and
• other electronic payments, including wire transfers, electronic benefits transfers, bill payments and automated clearing
house payments (ACH).
We face a number of competitors both within and outside the global payments industry:
• Cash and Check. Cash and check continue to represent the most widely used forms of payment, constituting
approximately 85% of the world’s retail payment transactions.
• General Purpose Payment Networks. We compete worldwide with payment networks such as Visa, American Express
and Discover, among others. Among global networks, Visa has significantly greater volume than we do. Outside of the
United States, networks such as JCB in Japan and UnionPay in China have leading positions in their domestic markets.
In the case of UnionPay, it operates the sole domestic payment switch in China. In addition, several governments are
promoting, or considering promoting, local networks for domestic processing. See our risk factors related to payments
system regulation and government actions that may prevent us from competing effectively for a more detailed
discussion.