Devesh
Core Member
The smartphone is mightier than the wallet, the one that holds cash and cards – that’s what demonetisation has proved. For all kinds of needs – buying candy to transferring money – there are more digital options available than paper. It’s also time-saving – why stand in bank and ATM queues to get cash when a few seconds of tapping a wallet app on a mobile phone are enough to make a payment? There is an alphabet soup of options available, leaving many confused about the best way to pay. Should it be net banking, credit cards, UPI, NEFT, RTGS, IMPS, USSD, Aadhaar-linked BHIM or a combination of them?
So far, people have grabbed whatever is easily available to pay for coffee, bills, movie tickets, cab rides and just about anything, and here, m-wallet Paytm has scored over others. “In the near term, wallets will do well as they are more popular,” said Niren Shah, MD of Norwest Venture Partners, an investor in technology and financial services startups.
However, as alternatives to cash payments evolve, users comfortable with mobile wallets today could shift to an easier digital platform. “Frictionless payments is the future,” said R Venkatachalam, managing director for India & South Asia at FIS Global, a global provider of financial services technology. “That is, any payment mechanism which is effortless, without requiring users to remember too many passwords, PINs etc, perhaps biometrics-enabled.” There’s more to providing a smooth digital payment experience than aspects such as security and ability to attract customers who are used to transacting in cash and are reluctant to change. “Three things are important for any payment option – access, interoperability and financial sustainability of the operator,” said Anant Bhagwati, partner, Bain & Company.
“In the long term, systems like UPI stand a better chance as they enable direct transfer from bank accounts to pay,” said Shah of Norwest.
Wallets Face a Wall
The winner for access to your bank account will be the one that offers the least hurdles to complete a payment. Mobile wallets are popular today – Paytm alone has 173 million users – but they have limitations. For one, they are not interoperable. Transferring money requires sender and receiver to have the same company’s account – it’s Paytm to Paytm, MobiKwik to MobiKwik and Freecharge to Freecharge.
here is why 'the flavour of the season', mobile wallets will die, Telecom News, ET Telecom
So far, people have grabbed whatever is easily available to pay for coffee, bills, movie tickets, cab rides and just about anything, and here, m-wallet Paytm has scored over others. “In the near term, wallets will do well as they are more popular,” said Niren Shah, MD of Norwest Venture Partners, an investor in technology and financial services startups.
However, as alternatives to cash payments evolve, users comfortable with mobile wallets today could shift to an easier digital platform. “Frictionless payments is the future,” said R Venkatachalam, managing director for India & South Asia at FIS Global, a global provider of financial services technology. “That is, any payment mechanism which is effortless, without requiring users to remember too many passwords, PINs etc, perhaps biometrics-enabled.” There’s more to providing a smooth digital payment experience than aspects such as security and ability to attract customers who are used to transacting in cash and are reluctant to change. “Three things are important for any payment option – access, interoperability and financial sustainability of the operator,” said Anant Bhagwati, partner, Bain & Company.
“In the long term, systems like UPI stand a better chance as they enable direct transfer from bank accounts to pay,” said Shah of Norwest.
Wallets Face a Wall
The winner for access to your bank account will be the one that offers the least hurdles to complete a payment. Mobile wallets are popular today – Paytm alone has 173 million users – but they have limitations. For one, they are not interoperable. Transferring money requires sender and receiver to have the same company’s account – it’s Paytm to Paytm, MobiKwik to MobiKwik and Freecharge to Freecharge.
here is why 'the flavour of the season', mobile wallets will die, Telecom News, ET Telecom