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1.4 billion people in China use WeChat to pay for everything. They don't even bother with credit cards.
by 10g1k 4y ago
1.4 billion people in China use WeChat to pay for everything. They don't even bother with credit cards.
- joshxyz 4y agothis. this is crazy. ewallets are taking over.
- spaetzleesser 4y agoHow much does WeChat charge in fees?
- em_te 4y ago0.6% for business transactions 0% for peer to peer transactions 0% to transfer from your bank account to WeChat 0.001% to transfer from your WeChat to bank account
- reaperducer 4y agoFortunately, phones never get lost. Or broken. Or stolen. Or discharge. Or malfunction. Or lock people out for no good reason. I can put a $100 bill through the washing machine and it's still perfectly usable. When I can do that with a phone, maybe I'll switch. I ran a credit card through the washer and dryer last month, and even though it got bent, and the stripe doesn't work anymore, the chip does. And the numbers can be punched into a POS terminal if all else fails. E-wallets are putting your finances into a single point of failure. Tech people should know better.
- saurik 4y agoI mean, you can always log into that WeChat account from another device... your WeChat username and password are maybe a bit more secure than all those numbers printed ostentatiously on your card, but are they really that different?
- kelnos 4y agoWhat other device? If I'm out and about and my phone gets stolen, broken, or even the battery just runs out, how do I pay for my transit ride home, where I -- maybe -- have a backup device? This is the -- pretty common -- failure case I worry about. And yes, I know it's also possible for physical wallets to be stolen. But cash doesn't "break" or run low on charge. Software bugs or internet access issues don't cause paying with cash to fail. Example of stupidity: I can pay for transit in my city with my phone. However, there are newer payment readers on a small percentage of trains here that just don't like my phone, and insist "Invalid Card". The company that manages support for the readers has been unable to help me. The older readers on older trains work fine. The older readers on all the buses work fine. But I have to carry a physical transit card with me all the time anyway, and -- amusingly enough -- it's more convenient to tap the card than to unlock my phone and hope it works.
- gjs278 4y ago
- Jensson 4y agoYou borrow someone's phone? Have people forgotten how to talk and help each other? It is very rare for phones to get stolen or break down, and when they do it is a lot easier to borrow a phone to pay for a Taxi than it is to beg for the money for a Taxi ride, so the situation still seems better than what we had before. Main thing stopping this would be that most phone OS doesn't seem to support guest logins, but that is an easy technicality to fix as long as there is demand for it which there will be as phones becomes more important.
- blackoil 4y agoYou can use eWallet as the primary payment method and have some cash as a backup. A smartwatch would be more convenient than taking out the phone/card.
- meowkit 4y agoTech people know how to back up their devices, passwords, photos, etc. Hell most apps are good enough that people are backing up these things without even realizing it.
- kelnos 4y agoThe majority of the world is not "tech people". And even with backups, you still need to buy a new (minimum $100?) device if yours gets lost, stolen, or broken. Should it really cost $100 to replace a payment card? For many of us here, $100 isn't a big deal, but for a lot of people, that amount determines whether or not they eat this week, or manage to pay rent this month.
- pphysch 4y agoDespite all this, the largest community on the planet is using it just fine.
- kelnos 4y agoDo they use it because it's "just fine", or because there's no alternative? How many people have daily problems with it (problems they might not have if cash were an option), but we just don't hear about it.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- marcodiego 4y ago> E-wallets are putting your finances into a single point of failure. Tech people should know better. Actually, multiple single points of failure.
- echelon 4y agoA single point of failure, leverage, unilateral negotiation, and control. Horrifying for all people and businesses (especially competitors). Real Standard Oil situation there. Not that our own duopolies aren't also problematic.
- stefan_ 4y agoThe grandparent is exaggerating somewhat, it's split between Alibaba and WeChat.
- echelon 4y agoMuch better, but five or so peer competitors is best for consumers and other businesses. Of course, as a business, you want to be a monopoly.
- gamegoblin 4y agoSince this is China, a better mental model is probably more along the lines of a utility company that is technically private, but in practice under such government oversight that it is quasi-governmental. Any sufficiently large company in China is better thought of as a quasi-governmental entity.
- blackoil 4y agoThey have advantage of a functional govt. If Tencent/Alibaba abuse there market position, they'll be hit swift and hard.
- morepork 4y agoAnd in India they have UPI which is similar in the use of QR codes, but facilitates interbank p2p payments
- searchableguy 4y agoWe also have rupay, which is now international as an alternative to visa and Mastercard. Credit card usage has been declining in India.