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The penetration of credit cards into everyone's daily life is already too deep. Let's face it, at this point they already got everybody well locked up. Any atte

The penetration of credit cards into everyone's daily life is already too deep. Let's face it, at this point they already got everybody well locked up. Any attempts to resist from just a few companies here and there are really just futile.

coldtea 8y ago
People didn't say that about Nazi Germany or slavery -- and they won over them in the end. And we'll say it for credit cards?
kalleboo 8y ago
Not really. Smartphone apps can be a game changer since they require so little infrastructure to adopt. Look at Venmo. In Sweden a banking revolution is taking place where an app similar to Venmo that instead was developed by a consortium of banks has quickly gotten mass adoption, recently also including at retail. I bought strawberries from a street stall using my phone.
- clan 8y ago
  The exact same is happening in Denmark. The huge players are under fire from new fintech startups. It has been amazing to see how fast such apps gain penetration in the market.
  - mrweasel 8y ago
    Honestly I can't think of a single fintech startup in Denmark that's is any competition to the banks and card companies. The only two apps that really have any penetration is MobilePay, but that's the large banks, and eDankort, but that's NETS. There are a fintech startups, but they all work with or for the large players.
    - clan 8y ago
      Due to regulations I think it is difficult to find any fintech which a small bootstrapped startup in the traditional sense. Some bank tie-in is needed. And by that I might be overloading the startup moniker. My point was that they're still tiny compared to the giants such as AmEx or Visa. And it shows that the old players can be unseated faster than expected.
yourapostasy 8y ago
You might not have visited China, then. If you stay within the WeChat payment network system instead of stepping out through bank interchanges, you see end-to-end payment friction at well lower than 1%. There is plenty of room to innovate yet, and drive costs even lower for this utility, which arguably can be a government-delivered utility at some point in the future.

coldtea 8y ago

People didn't say that about Nazi Germany or slavery -- and they won over them in the end. And we'll say it for credit cards?

kalleboo 8y ago

Not really. Smartphone apps can be a game changer since they require so little infrastructure to adopt. Look at Venmo. In Sweden a banking revolution is taking place where an app similar to Venmo that instead was developed by a consortium of banks has quickly gotten mass adoption, recently also including at retail. I bought strawberries from a street stall using my phone.

clan 8y ago
The exact same is happening in Denmark. The huge players are under fire from new fintech startups. It has been amazing to see how fast such apps gain penetration in the market.
- mrweasel 8y ago
  Honestly I can't think of a single fintech startup in Denmark that's is any competition to the banks and card companies. The only two apps that really have any penetration is MobilePay, but that's the large banks, and eDankort, but that's NETS. There are a fintech startups, but they all work with or for the large players.
  - clan 8y ago
    Due to regulations I think it is difficult to find any fintech which a small bootstrapped startup in the traditional sense. Some bank tie-in is needed. And by that I might be overloading the startup moniker. My point was that they're still tiny compared to the giants such as AmEx or Visa. And it shows that the old players can be unseated faster than expected.

yourapostasy 8y ago

You might not have visited China, then. If you stay within the WeChat payment network system instead of stepping out through bank interchanges, you see end-to-end payment friction at well lower than 1%. There is plenty of room to innovate yet, and drive costs even lower for this utility, which arguably can be a government-delivered utility at some point in the future.