We have Apple Pay and Android Pay leaving the US shores and a few other test countries, and Samsung Pay doing the same starting from South Korea.
It may sound like another online fad but this time (okay you may have heard this before) it is quite more serious: traditional banks are in and promoting the respective services aggressively. What has changed in the last two years?
The ubiquity of smartphones and the realization that once a service reaches critical mass, users tend to stick with it. And this has nothing to do with the quality of the service, or its UX, it is really the number of users and the related network effect that makes difference. And once someone is used to paying with a service, and providing a wealth of information about its habits, this is gold for any provider.
Hence the payment war that was brewing for so long now playing in the open.
Singapore with its small highly connected and wealthy population, and top notch digital infrastructure is the perfect testing ground. Samsung Pay became available on June 16th, Apple Pay started few weeks earlier on May 25th, and finally Android Pay arrived on June 28th. And all the banks are proposing cash back schemes, food store chains are proposing discounts, and every possible media is reporting on it. And of course advertising platforms are loving it with the gigantic budgets being poured into the various launches.
This would not be complete without mentioning Alipay, from the Chinese juggernaut Alibaba, that is now available almost everywhere after the purchase of regional online e-commerce giant lazada. Although Alipay is still firmly online based, this will change quickly.
I have not done a thorough test of all services, using exclusively Android Pay, which works also very well on all terminals labelled "Samsung Pay" (to the confusion of store clerks)*. Using those services is akin to swiping your credit card in front of the terminal and putting it back in your wallet. Quick and easy, with the difference of doing with your phone. And it is always closer to your hand than your credit card, right?
A quick demonstration here
The four actors are using Singapore to learn about consumers' reaction, hone their marketing tactics and expand quickly. It will make for an interesting battle but also for more innovation for us, consumers. And that, cannot be bad.
*I must mention again that I am a Google employee so I have had immediate access to the service and can be biased. And also that the opinion expressed here is mine only and not that of my employer.
