The Chinese App that does everything: Wechat

[rcrmj]

I fail to see what major advantage a phone based payment system bring to me, as a customer. Its neither faster, nor more mobile nor cheaper than a credit card for me. I fail to see any kind of improvement over a tapping based credit card. I have my credit card and for almost all of my purchases, I just need to tap it and I am done. Heck, I can say scanning a QR code is more inconvenient to me. It may be better than carrying cash, but then thats all about it. Otherwise a credit card is better. Not to mention, a credit card is universally acceptable.

because you never lived in an advanced, cardless, cashless society````of course its faster, easier and cheaper than credit card``````now we are moving towards facial payment```i guess you wont see the "advantage" too```

 

[Mista]

I fail to see what major advantage a phone based payment system bring to me, as a customer. Its neither faster, nor more mobile nor cheaper than a credit card for me. I fail to see any kind of improvement over a tapping based credit card. I have my credit card and for almost all of my purchases, I just need to tap it and I am done. Heck, I can say scanning a QR code is more inconvenient to me. It may be better than carrying cash, but then thats all about it.

The major advantage of QR payment is it's very infrastructure-light.

Card-readers are expensive and it adds on to business costs, hence in Singapore street vendors/small businesses don't adopt card-readers for small transactions. You don't use credit card to buy a 20 cents cabbage or a $1 bun right?

QR payment doesn't have this problem. You can use QR payment to pay for bill invoices, tip a waiter and even donate to a beggar. Can you imagine a beggar going around with a card-reader?

Therefore in Singapore even though credit card is already established, we are learning from China to adopt QR payment for everyday life.

Brief explaination:

Examples in Singapore, we are still at the infancy stage:

Innovative applications in China:

 

[OIO]

P2P? I have my bank app which allows me to instantly send money to anyone, if I need. Or paypal if they are only having an email. And honestly, how frequently you send money to your peers. Usually you spend money in some store.

If you use card there is a POS, right?
Wechat pay is so popular because it's convenient for both seller and buyer.
No POS, no NFC, no threshold.

 

[jhungary]

I have company and property business to attend in the U.K, surely have at least pay minimum attention to them```ayway, western apps are not up to our standard of user friendness`````and not to mention the whole society's view on new phenomenon is quite convervative and somehow backward especially to the European countries`

Well, don't know, I just don't want you to get scammed by one of those immigration "lawyer"

Because your definition/requirment of ILR (if you really have them) is a lot different than mine. Anyway, if you are fine with it, I won't say anything more in this sense. I mean, that's your money, not mine

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

QR is also supported
(edit: by VISA)

 

[BringHarmony]

Card-readers are expensive and it adds on to business costs, hence in Singapore street vendors/small businesses don't adopt card-readers for small transactions. You don't use credit card to buy a 20 cents cabbage or a $1 bun right?

Actually I do. Smallest payment with a tap that I have done is of $0.50. Card reader's cost is usually amortized over a large number of transactions, so its cost per transaction is negligible. BTW, card readers are no more expensive, there are bluetooth based card-reader which work with phones. They carry almost no expense. From a buyer's perspective it is identical to any other card reader.

because you never lived in an advanced, cardless, cashless society````of course its faster, easier and cheaper than credit card``````now we are moving towards facial payment```i guess you wont see the "advantage" too```

Huh? There are mobile based payment options in Vancouver as well. No one uses them because cards are so omni-present and so convenient. As far as bio metric payment goes, there are firms here who are experimenting with it. Biometric payment will be nice add-on. In case you forgot your wallet. I have seen thumb-print based payment option here.

If you use card there is a POS, right?
Wechat pay is so popular because it's convenient for both seller and buyer.
No POS, no NFC, no threshold.

I don't know about seller side of story. Here I have seen people regularly buying coffee with a tap based payment. Vending machines giving out things using cards is so 90s that it is not even worth mentioning.

Can you imagine a beggar going around with a card-reader?

Well, true. I have only seen street performers carrying QR codes here.

Its function and security will become more perfect in the future, and it is the product of the development of the Internet to the present level.

You do know that card based payment also works over internet, right? POS use 3G or 2G connection to post transaction to card processor.
As far as security goes, cards are more secure because they have 2 factor authentication very well built.

 

[beijingwalker]

If so why US is trying to copy Wechat as ABC news reported? They know that's the future.

 

[BringHarmony]

If so why US is trying to copy Wechat as ABC news reported? They know that's the future.

Actually things like this existed for quite some time. Eg. QkR by Mastercard was launched in 2013. People don't use it very often because they offer no greater convenience over existing payment options like tap based payment. May be China went straight from Cash to Mobile/QR code based payment system and never had an extensive card based system with contactless payment option enabled.

https://www.crunchbase.com/apptopia_app/04a2d09f-016b-42dd-afa0-9b0832e0ec75#section-overview

 

[HannibalBarca]

If so why US is trying to copy Wechat as ABC news reported? They know that's the future.

QR is not the future. And it's not new either.
It's an interesting way to do it, but it's not the Future...

The future is something from what you see with Newest Amazon stores...
You get in... you take what you wish and you leave... and the bill will be automatically taken from your Amazon account.
No scan... No tap...

But As of right now... TaptoPay is what will be around... Easier-Simpler-Faster. and present in almost every mobile/payment support, From phones to watches to cards..
QR lack adaptability while NFC is not.

But QR has it's good... It's Cheap (Structure/Seller) and some may argue it's a little safer.

 

[Mista]

QR is also supported

Huh? You mean Visa?

Yeah. Visa QR is also supported in Singapore. There was a recent collaboration with many other merchants and the authorities to come out with a unified payment QR code. We used to have too many QR codes which can be confusing and complicated.
That video was shot in Singapore btw.

You can use Visa, UnionPay, WeChat Pay and Alipay in Singapore as well now.

Singapore rolls out unified payment QR code SGQR in latest cashless push
Dubbed the world’s first unified payment QR code, the SGQR is compatible with 27 payment schemes, such as PayNow and NETS, and will be deployed over the next six months.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...-payment-singapore-rolls-out-unified-10727568

 

[beijingwalker]

Why is U.S. Copying China's WeChat For Mobile Payments?

QR is not the future. And it's not new either.
It's an interesting way to do it, but it's not the Future...

The future is something from what you see with Newest Amazon stores...
You get in... you take what you wish and you leave... and the bill will be automatically taken from your Amazon account.
No scan... No tap...

But As of right now... TaptoPay is what will be around... Easier-Simpler-Faster. and present in almost every mobile/payment support, From phones to watches to cards..
QR lack adaptability while NFC is not.

But QR has it's good... It's Cheap (Structure/Seller) and some may argue it's a little safer.

Maybe that's because you've never lived in a cashless society before, foreigners come to China adapt really fast and they love this even more than local Chinese.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

May be China went straight from Cash to Mobile/QR code based payment system and never had an extensive card based system with contactless payment option enabled.

That's pretty much what had happened. We went cashless with the infrastructure for debit and credit card usage + online banking in the 1990's way before the arrival of smartphones.

Card usage was simply not ubiquitous in China back then and when smartphones became common they simply skipped over it to QR codes.

 

[beijingwalker]

You don't expect everyone carries a card machine.

 

[HannibalBarca]

Maybe that's because you've never lived in a cashless society before, foreigners come to China adapt really fast and they love this even more than local Chinese.

And how do you think westerners live? with a bag of pennies in their hands?
I never paid with cash in France for almost 6-7 years. (100%cashless) I just need a plastic card... in my wallet (along my IDs-Licence etc) or my Phone with NFC
So We know what is being cashless.... The Support may differ...the End result is the same.

But I can understand when a Chinese like you, coming in X or Y western country without a debit card or a way to pay with your phone ( Apple/Google/Samsung pay) may find it difficult and therefore resort to "cash".

In our Time, in any western country...you can pay With OR Without cash... you've got the choice.

So keep you assumptions aside...

ps: Before 2011, I had cash in my wallet, that i will ONLY use maybe 20-30% of the time. and that was like that for almost a decade... (2003-2011).

 

[BringHarmony]

You don't expect everyone carries a card machine.

Here in Vancouver, even taxi drivers have it. Home food delivery folks have it. Its everywhere. Plus, there are these small bluetooth based readers which are very small and use mobile phone's internet connection. The advantage of card machine is that it also generates a printed receipt, if you need one.

That's pretty much what had happened. We went cashless with the infrastructure for debit and credit card usage + online banking in the 1990's way before the arrival of smartphones.

Card usage was simply not ubiquitous in China back then and when smartphones became common they simply skipped over it to QR codes.

Yeah, heck even the benefits are delivered using cards. 'Food Stamps' in US are essentially debit cards.

Maybe that's because you've never lived in a cashless society before, foreigners come to China adapt really fast and they love this even more than local Chinese.

Well, North America largely went cashless long long way back with mag-stripe cards. In Europe, I guess it is even earlier. Heck I remember in 2000s Sweden or some other country actually declared that they won't be printing cash anymore. Word 'Cashless' was coined by a US company IIRC.

That said, people still keep cash around so as to ensure that they are not tracked.