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The order of things and they relative advantage of previous tech is important here. In order of appearance we had cash, swipe cards, chip cards, contactless car
by yoz-y 7y ago
The order of things and they relative advantage of previous tech is important here. In order of appearance we had cash, swipe cards, chip cards, contactless cards, QR codes and NFC (in a usable manner). But not every country had them spread equally.
In China a large portion of the population practically skipped credit cards, when the mobile revolution came there was no NFC but QR codes were easy to implement. As a buyer you just need a camera on your phone and as a merchant you just need a piece of paper. No need for a register, no need for internet connection. In Hong Kong and Taiwan the transportation NFC card practically replaced cash and payment cards and also made NFC cards practically no better, also making QR codes relatively non-interesting. With the advent of WeChat however, this went to the side I suppose (haven't been there since so can't say for sure)
In contrast in Europe we did not use swipe cards much and went quickly to chip. Transition to contactless cards was more or less seamless because when you refreshed your card you got a contactless one. Which made merchants want to upgrade terminals. Mobile payment jut piggy backed on that. There are some shops that accept qr code payments, but with presence of Apple and Android pay, this is a massively worse use case. QR codes are marginally more convenient than credit cards, but they require almost zero specific infrastructure.
From what I understand in the US chip cards came so late that everybody just immediately skipped to Apple/Android pay. However since chip card terminals are needed for nfc, this made adoption by merchants more of a "thing". It was quite common to see "this shop now accepts apple pay" as a headline.
- jandrese 7y agoThe chip readers still have the problem of being too damn slow in the US. Often taking more than 5 seconds to complete the transaction. It may not sound like much, but that adds up over time. Apple pay is instant, although it has the annoyance that the range on the contactless payment is about 4" (10cm) too short so you have to wave your phone all over the reader until you find the one spot where the antennas line up just right to get the read.
- baybal2 7y agoThe problem with NFC was Google and Apple Google intentionally hobbled NFC and stonewalled Panasonic from adding IrDA to Androud to force people into using Android beam. Apple never gave anybody access to raw NFC to prevent competition to Apple Pay. I personally met people who made TenPay. They pretty much confirm that the sole point of QR code was to sidestep Apple and Google.
- rootusrootus 7y ago> They pretty much confirm that the sole point of QR code was to sidestep Apple and Google. The QR code has been around since the mid-90s and had nothing to do with payment. That's a much more recent application.
- yoz-y 7y agoBut Walmart, Lydia and others have also tried to sidestep Apple and Google (and Samsung). It never took up, because once you have contactless cards and NFC phones going to QR codes is a massive regression.