NFC offers secure transactions and has been widely used for commuter tickets in Europe and elsewhere since 1994. The MIFARE collection system was introduced by Mikron, and then acquired by Philips (later NXP) in 1998. Over ten billion cards and 150 million reader modules have been sold. Recently Google and MasterCard launched Google Wallet in 2011, and Apple launched Apple Pay in 2014, greatly expanding the use of NFC technology for secure transactions.