Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2016 13:03:52 GMT 7
Electronic payment apps like Venmo win customers and make headlines for their ease of use, transparent costs, and widespread adoption, creating the illusion that money is flying through the air without the slightest friction. In truth, the global electronic payment market is far thornier than its products would make it seem.
On the global scale, the electronic payments industry is about as fragmented as the mobile messaging industry for platforms such as WeChat (China), Line (Japan), Viber (Philippines), and so on and so forth. In North America, Paypal and its subsidiaries Venmo and Braintree dominate the electronic payments market. In Africa, Kenya’s M-PESA is the major player, serving both as a medium of economic exchange for those without bank accounts and as a mobile savings platform for millions of people without access to the traditional banking system. Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Wallet have essentially split the Chinese market.
Although there is plenty of startup activity in the Americas, Europe and Africa, we haven’t yet seen a company that poses a significant threat to these regional leaders, and neither startups nor incumbents position themselves as feasible contenders for dominance on a global scale. Plus, country-specific dominance isn’t the only thing that separates these companies. Some, like Venmo and Paypal, typically require users to have bank accounts, which means that the 2.5 billion people worldwide who don’t have a formal bank account can’t use their services. (Paypal’s prepaid cash card is designed to attract the unbanked, but it’s been criticized for, among other things, an overly narrow focus on, well, using Paypal.) Others, like M-PESA, can be used without a bank account, which makes their scope potentially more far-reaching—though so far, none have expanded beyond regional dominance.
www.forbes.com/sites/vinnielauria/2016/10/17/asias-trillion-dollar-electronic-payments-problem-and-how-to-figure-it-out/#1a21a9c10283
On the global scale, the electronic payments industry is about as fragmented as the mobile messaging industry for platforms such as WeChat (China), Line (Japan), Viber (Philippines), and so on and so forth. In North America, Paypal and its subsidiaries Venmo and Braintree dominate the electronic payments market. In Africa, Kenya’s M-PESA is the major player, serving both as a medium of economic exchange for those without bank accounts and as a mobile savings platform for millions of people without access to the traditional banking system. Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Wallet have essentially split the Chinese market.
Although there is plenty of startup activity in the Americas, Europe and Africa, we haven’t yet seen a company that poses a significant threat to these regional leaders, and neither startups nor incumbents position themselves as feasible contenders for dominance on a global scale. Plus, country-specific dominance isn’t the only thing that separates these companies. Some, like Venmo and Paypal, typically require users to have bank accounts, which means that the 2.5 billion people worldwide who don’t have a formal bank account can’t use their services. (Paypal’s prepaid cash card is designed to attract the unbanked, but it’s been criticized for, among other things, an overly narrow focus on, well, using Paypal.) Others, like M-PESA, can be used without a bank account, which makes their scope potentially more far-reaching—though so far, none have expanded beyond regional dominance.
www.forbes.com/sites/vinnielauria/2016/10/17/asias-trillion-dollar-electronic-payments-problem-and-how-to-figure-it-out/#1a21a9c10283
