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Credit Card companies are Tech Companies now?

sidlls 9y ago
Credit Card companies are the ones who manage the transaction between the point of sale and banks that issue credit cards. There is a sophisticated network of technologies to process transactions and manage and mitigate fraud. They may not sell tech, but many of the companies in the list don't, either: tech is a means to their end.
- dominotw 9y ago
  > tech is a means to their end. Wouldnt this be all companies on the planet then
  - hyperpape 9y ago
    It's a good point and it really is a fuzzy distinction, but consider Wal-Mart. They employ a lot of tech, but the goal is to put a product in the hands of a customer in exchange for money[0]. Visa is closer to the boundary: it's doing transactions, and a bigger portion of that business is just shuffling bits around than what Wal-Mart does. But then again: is Amazon a tech company? AWS is, but the retail portion is less clear. [0] Isn't that Apple too? Yes, but the sole product is a technology product (even if it has fashion aspects like the watch).
  - sidlls 9y ago
    No, not remotely. Some companies use tech as a tool of convenience but have no need of being involved in its development. For example anyone who operates a small-time retail business who sells via Amazon or their own e-commerce site. Companies like the ones I refer to depend on having and developing sophisticated technology as a part of their core competencies and business model. For example, there isn't a (sane) bank on the planet that would use, say, Visa as their payment processor without the various indemnities against fraud in the contracts they sign. And those indemnities are only possible if Visa has a sophisticated payment processing network with fraud detection.
letlambda 9y ago
They don't just provide credit. They also trade in personal information.
- vonmoltke 9y ago
  Visa and MasterCard don't provide credit at all. They are just payment processors.
nunez 9y ago
Credit card companies not so much (basically a loan product with tie-ins to third-party payment processors and decision engines), but payment processors? Absolutely.

Credit Card companies are the ones who manage the transaction between the point of sale and banks that issue credit cards. There is a sophisticated network of technologies to process transactions and manage and mitigate fraud. They may not sell tech, but many of the companies in the list don't, either: tech is a means to their end.

dominotw 9y ago
> tech is a means to their end. Wouldnt this be all companies on the planet then
- hyperpape 9y ago
  It's a good point and it really is a fuzzy distinction, but consider Wal-Mart. They employ a lot of tech, but the goal is to put a product in the hands of a customer in exchange for money[0]. Visa is closer to the boundary: it's doing transactions, and a bigger portion of that business is just shuffling bits around than what Wal-Mart does. But then again: is Amazon a tech company? AWS is, but the retail portion is less clear. [0] Isn't that Apple too? Yes, but the sole product is a technology product (even if it has fashion aspects like the watch).
- sidlls 9y ago
  No, not remotely. Some companies use tech as a tool of convenience but have no need of being involved in its development. For example anyone who operates a small-time retail business who sells via Amazon or their own e-commerce site. Companies like the ones I refer to depend on having and developing sophisticated technology as a part of their core competencies and business model. For example, there isn't a (sane) bank on the planet that would use, say, Visa as their payment processor without the various indemnities against fraud in the contracts they sign. And those indemnities are only possible if Visa has a sophisticated payment processing network with fraud detection.

letlambda 9y ago

They don't just provide credit. They also trade in personal information.

vonmoltke 9y ago
Visa and MasterCard don't provide credit at all. They are just payment processors.

nunez 9y ago

Credit card companies not so much (basically a loan product with tie-ins to third-party payment processors and decision engines), but payment processors? Absolutely.