Mobile payment technology giants and retailers melee

Absrtact: In 2011, Google (Weibo) launched Google Wallet Mobile payment scheme, when Apple is concentrating on polishing the upcoming new generation of flagship model IPhone5, there is no sound in the mobile payment field. 3 years later, with the launch of the latest generation of iphone 6,

In 2011, Google (Weibo) launched the Google Wallet mobile payment scheme, when Apple is working to burnish the upcoming new generation of flagship model IPhone5, there is no sound in the mobile payment field.

3 years later, with the launch of the latest generation of iphone 6, Apple also released its own mobile payment solution-apple Pay. With Apple's increasingly sophisticated fingerprint-identification system, and with the cooperation of many financial institutions, Apple Pay has gained market recognition once it is launched, a "cool" payment that quickly becomes a new popular lifestyle among many young people.

and Google Wallet, but because of the near-field communication use environment immature bottleneck, the advent of three years and not much breakthrough, Apple Pay seems to come from behind.

But this is not the story of a turtle and Hare race.

Last week, Google announced that it would work with Softcard, the mobile-payments firm, with support from the country's three largest mobile operators, the internet giant, to move again on the mobile-payments battlefield.

For Google and Apple, another opponent on the battlefield that cannot be ignored is Samsung. The company, the world's largest smartphone market share, recently bought another mobile payment company, LoopPay, to push its own mobile payment system in the future.

But let's not forget that, in addition to these tech giants, the new battlefield has a traditional retailer with Wal-Mart as its representative. For years dissatisfied with American Express, Visa and other card issuers to pay high fees of Wal-Mart, now and Google, Apple and other technology companies in the mobile payment field as the enemy, although the technology and data are at a disadvantage, but the huge offline resources and to be able to launch direct consumers receive benefits of discounts, coupons and other means, Also makes its main push for CURRENTC payments in the future mobile payment market is full of imagination.

EMarketer, a market consultancy, said the total US mobile payments in 2014 amounted to about $3.5 billion trillion, which is expected to rise sharply to $25 billion by 2016.

2015 has just begun, mobile payment battlefield has been the smoke, technology giants and traditional retailers in this new battlefield of the melee will become increasingly fierce.

Mobile payment domain Apple wants to overtake Google again

Recently, Apple, Google and Samsung, the three major technology giants in the mobile payment field of action. This round of mobile payments began with Apple Pay, the mobile payment solution unveiled last October, while Apple Pay is currently only available on Apple's newest generation of iphone 6 handsets, but the combination of Apple's increasingly sophisticated fingerprint-identification system with many financial institutions has made Apple Pay experience is excellent, and more and more people are starting to use Apple Pay for payment activities.

The rapid popularity of Apple's pay has left Google, the former market-mover, unable to sit. As early as 2011, Google launched its Android-based Google Wallet, which allows users to bind personal bank cards and credit cards to online payments, and to pay by using NFC-enabled handsets via near-field communications technology (NFC).

But because Google's NFC payment application is pioneering prematurely, when the market environment is not ready, most of the U.S. merchants POS machine does not support NFC technology, resulting in slow Google Wallet projects, user use and activity is not high, even 3 years later today, NFC Technology to support the POS machine is still very few, the technical concept of the leading encounter a real environment bottleneck, but let Apple come from behind.

A few days ago, Google announced a partnership with Softcard, a mobile payment company. The latter is a joint venture made up of three of America's big mobile operators, ATT, Verizon Wireless and T. Softcard was first founded in 2010, and its mobile payment concept is similar to Google's, and it also uses NFC technology to pay for its mobile phones that support the technology through binding bank cards or credit cards. But also limited by the application environment is immature, Softcard promotion progress is also very slow, from the end of 2010 announced the establishment, until 2012 to complete the trial test, until the end of 2013, the formal nationwide promotion. Moreover, Softcard's earliest company name, which was first named Isis, coincided with the name of ISIS, the terrorist group, until last September, when the company officially changed its name to Softcard.

Google's collaboration with Softcard, ostensibly like two groups of people who are frustrated in NFC mobile payment applications, may not be the case.

First of all, this should be a powerful union. Behind Google Wallet is the internet giant Google, Softcard behind the three major U.S. mobile operators. According to the cooperation Agreement, the future of the three major operators in the United States to sell Android smartphone, will be pre-installed with Google Wallet, which means that in the future almost all new Android smartphone users will become Google Wallet potential users.

Second, Google Wallet is more flexible and more widely used than Apple Pay. Despite the current poor application of NFC payments, Google Wallet is actually a part of the entire ecosystem of Google's Android, the future if the effective integration of other Google services, such as maps, social and so on, the future imagine space is very broad.

Unlike Apple Pay, which can only be used on iphone 6 or iphone 6 Plus, all Android smartphones with Android 4.4 and above can use the Google Wallet feature. At the same time, Google has also taken into account the traditional payment habits, Google-registered users can obtain a similar to the ordinary bank card of the Google Wallet of the magnetic stripe plastic card, this card use and traditional bank card or credit card use exactly the same.

Samsung's attack on traditional retailers

In addition to Google and Apple, another powerful player on this new battlefield is Samsung, the world's largest smartphone-share company, which last week LoopPay a mobile payment company, and wants to seize the next opportunity in the field.

Unlike Google Wallet, Apple pay and other means of payment, LoopPay also has its own hardware device-a black square card called loop cards, which generates a magnetic field near a merchant's swipe machine to simulate the traditional swipe of a bank card.

After acquiring LoopPay, Samsung has speculated that it could build its own mobile payment solution by integrating LoopPay's payment technology, including hardware, into Samsung's next-generation smartphone.

LoopPay said that at present its own mobile payment method acceptance in the United States ranked first, there are more than 10 million businesses can accept looppay payment, compared to the United States only 208,000 businesses can accept Google Wallet payment.

While the battle between the big tech giants in mobile payments is increasingly complex, another opponent that cannot be ignored is eyeing the new battlefield. The retailer's autonomous mobile payment system, led by retail giant Wal-Mart, has been on the line, with some 50 retailers, including Rite Aid, CVS and Best Buy, already involved, with the ultimate intent of CurrentC to build their own pay ecology and get rid of years of visa, MasterCard and American Express, the three card issuers, pay high fees. Data show that in 2013, retailers paid a total of 48 billion dollars in transaction fees to credit card companies.

The dispute between retailers and card issuers has been around for a long while, in the new battlefield of mobile payments, and with technology giants such as Google and Apple. In fact, Rite Aid and CVS have refused to accept the way Apple Pay is paid.

Unlike Apple Pay,google Wallet, which uses near-field communications technology to pay, CurrentC pays by scanning two-dimensional codes.

Although complained that the CurrentC experience is not good, its app in the Apple Store and Google App Store ratings are only the lowest star, but its behind the promotion of retailers is not to be overlooked, these retailers can completely through simple and direct consumer discounts, coupons and other measures, Rapidly and effectively expand CurrentC market share.

One example is that the traditional consumer-oriented business will be a strong competitor if it makes mobile payments. Starbucks mobile apps can bind users ' bank cards to the virtual Starbucks membership card, and in their coffee shop, by scanning the phone's two-dimensional code to complete the payment. According to the data, about 56 million consumers every week in the United States use Starbucks handsets to pay for their purchases in their stores.

A new round of mobile payment battles has just begun, and the entry of traditional retailers will complicate the future. Technology giants, data advantages, the retailer's offline resources advantage, are the future in this field is an important prerequisite for the opportunity.