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I find these products like Apple Pay and Android Pay to be too old-school, doubling down on the dependence on banks and credit cards. They need to go ahead and

• kyriakos 10y ago
  This is something a company I used to work for tried to do and failed. I do agree thats the way to go but there are some obstacles we didn't manage to overcome: 1. trust - will people trust their money to be deposited in the digital wallet? unless you have a massive banking institution behind you the public might not be so eager to use your system. 2. you need a convenient way to transfer money to digital wallet. if that method is a credit card the whole system breaks down because someone has to absorb the cc transaction fee. 3. banks have good relations with Visa/Mastercard/Amex and cause friction when you have to deal with them for a system that takes away profits from the credit card companies.
  • firasd 10y ago
    Yeah, maybe they're taking off in India and China because of a "leapfrog" opportunity. For example, pre-paid digital wallets are used to pay for ride-sharing, whereas in the U.S people just use the same card that they already use often at CVS, Starbucks etc. The other aspect that I think a lot of financial innovation will depend on is a "killer app". In India it's been phone 'recharge'--most people have prepaid phones, so you can add balance using the mobile wallet app instead of going out to find a nearby shop or kiosk to do it for you. And in the case of China, WeChat integrates so many services that it makes sense to have a wallet integrated into its many offerings. In the U.S, Venmo is instructive too, about focusing on a product rather than a method or technology.