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I believe Visa and Mastercard are feeling threatened perhaps? For both UnionPay and Alipay are huge in Asia, various banks replacing Visa/MC as primary choice
by TheChaplain 8y ago
I believe Visa and Mastercard are feeling threatened perhaps?
For both UnionPay and Alipay are huge in Asia, various banks replacing Visa/MC as primary choice for credit/debit cards and mobile payments in a majority of shops.
Europe seems to be next from what I've noticed, their brands showing up here and there in shops.
But I think this might be a good thing, we need more competition in that area.
- johnmaguire2013 8y agoIf they felt threatened, wouldn't it make sense to lower fees to make their service more appealing to retailers?
- the_duke 8y agoThe situation in Europe is generally better because EU legislation (Interchange Fee Regulation) has limited the fees that payment processors can charge. That regulation also requires more transparency and is supposed to promote alternative payment systems by limiting lock in. As always, Europe is too fragmented, and slower to adopt new tech, for one of these app based solutions to gain wide spread adoption quickly, though.
- jwr 8y ago> As always, Europe is too fragmented, and slower to adopt new tech, for one of these solutions to gain wide spread adoption quickly Not sure what you're talking about. In Poland, I can use my phone to pay for anything anywhere. Seriously. I can buy a single apple at a grocery stand and tap my phone on the reader that will surely be there and will surely work with all NFC payment systems. Coming to the US is a shock, because suddenly nothing works, and even in places where it's supposed to work nobody tries to pay with a phone, because it's flaky. So I'd say it's exactly the other way around. With customer-facing banking tech, Europe is way ahead of the US.
- the_duke 8y agoAnd what is the name of the app? Because I guarantee most of Europe has never heard of it. That was my point. Solutions might gain adoption in a single country quickly, and there are some that are becoming very popular in various countries. But it's hard for any one of them to get adoption across the EU.
- dan1234 8y agoUsually ‘the app’ is just contactless payment via Apple Pay or Google Pay.
- jwr 8y agoWhat app? :-) You mean Google/Android Pay or Apple Pay or anything else? (such as the wonderfully low-tech solution of placing a miniature NFC credit card sticker on the back of your phone or in your phone case). I'm not sure what you mean by "getting adoption", but when I stand in line in Warsaw, almost all payments are contactless, and probably 1/3 are done using a phone.
- ArtDev 8y agoYou have it reversed. Europe is almost always ahead.
- garmaine 8y agoBut fragmented. The word was fragmented.
- monksy 8y agoThe UK is a heck of a lot more accepting of Google pay now. Last summer I used it at WH Waterstones in Gatwick.
- r4vik 8y agoit works anywhere I can use a contactless card
- benj111 8y agoI don't follow. Visa/MC are threatened by a new entrant, so raise fees? .......thus prompting retailers to shop around for a different provider?