Mobile phone into POS machine to acquire bills Lakala and Visa launched a pilot

Recently, global digital payment company Visa and domestic tripartite payment agency Lakala cooperated to carry out a pilot mobile POS application during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The solution, called "Visa Tap to Phone," can make mobile phones a convenient mobile collection tool, mainly for taxi drivers to provide mobile collection services, making it easier for Visa card holders to travel and spend in China.

Mobile phone POS application space is very broad, and many mobile phone manufacturers have layouts. Recently, Apple announced the launch of a new feature "Tap to Pay", which allows merchants to complete payments only through the iPhone without additional hardware. So, what impact will the promotion of mobile phone POS function have on the traditional POS machine acquiring market pattern?

Mobile phone POS pilot during the Winter Olympics

It is understood that the mobile phone POS function launched by Visa and Lakala supports a full range of open NFC (short range communication) capabilities for Android mobile phones, which are not limited by mobile phone brands, operating systems and chip types, which significantly reduces the adaptation threshold of mobile phone models. Taxi drivers can download registration activation through major Android app stores, turning their phones into collection tools without any additional hardware.

This solution can support overseas issuance of Visa card contactless payment, mobile wallet, smart wearable device non-connection payment, the user experience is very convenient.

"China Times" reporter learned that the Visa Tap to Phone function has been promoted worldwide, the function is mainly divided into two parts: on the payment side, users can use the mobile phone with NFC function to bind visa card to pay, the payment experience is similar to Apple Pay; On the collection side, the mobile phone is used as a collection tool. The Visa Tap to Phone pay-the-money terminal feature launched in cooperation with Lakala was the first time in China.

According to reports, in this pilot, Lakala mainly provides technical support, and the mobile phone POS realizes the comprehensive judgment and collection of device fingerprints, merchant information and positioning information. Lakala comprehensively uses coordinate positioning, transaction monitoring and other technical means to effectively prevent and control business risks such as fraud and theft, and escort merchant operations and cardholders' consumption.

The reason for choosing a taxi scene, some insiders pointed out to the "China Times" reporter that cooperation with regular taxi companies can avoid money laundering, cash-out, and meet compliance requirements.

In addition to the taxi scene, the mobile phone POS loaded with Visa Tap to Phone function will further improve the payment acceptance environment for visa cards issued overseas during the Winter Olympics.

In addition to the domestic layout of mobile phone POS business, Lakala also has plans to expand overseas markets. Lakala said that as a Visa Tap to Phone MOBILE PHONE POS solution service provider, hoping to rely on the global share advantages of local mobile phone brands and the advantages of mobile phone industry chain cooperation, Lakala will cooperate with Visa to export technology overseas in the future, convert smart devices with NFC capabilities into payment tools, and provide low-cost, safe and portable collection solutions worldwide.

Regarding the significance of this cooperation, both sides said that this pilot is an attempt by both sides to combine the taxi scene, and in the future, the two sides will give full play to the advantages of technology business, further improve the online and offline application scenarios of mobile phone POS, promote the cooperation of the technology in the ecological fields such as IOT devices, vehicle networking devices, smart tablets, etc., promote the development of the global payment industry, and provide an innovative, safe and convenient collection experience for merchants and cardholders.

People in the payment industry told the "China Times" reporter that with the gradual improvement of the epidemic situation, the flow of people between the international community will be more frequent in the future, and the payment needs of overseas people in China cannot be ignored. Compared with the third-party payment methods such as WeChat and Alipay chosen by Chinese users, foreign card payment is more common, and it is worth paying attention to the cooperation between institutions such as Visa and Chinese third-party payment companies to develop payment scenarios.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to the cooperation with Lakala, Visa has also cooperated with bank of China and UnionPay cloud flash payment to develop services for the Winter Olympics scenario.

Last September, Visa and bank of China announced their partnership to support digital payments and financial services for the Beijing 2022 Winter olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Bank of China is the official banking service partner of the Winter Olympics, supporting the acceptance of Visa payment methods during the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, including ATMs and POS terminal services in Winter Olympic venues. In other words, users can use the Visa dual standard card to pay at the Winter Olympic Games. In addition, Visa and bank of China jointly launched the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics theme credit card.

Visa also has a partnership with China UnionPay, where users can bind a Visa UnionPay dual-standard card in UnionPay Cloud Flash Pay and make payments at the Venues of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

The phone is transformed into a POS machine

Generally speaking, merchants choose POS machines to acquire bills, to pay a certain amount of terminal delivery costs, follow-up also need maintenance. Turning the mobile phone into a collection device similar to a POS machine, without the help of any external device, which undoubtedly reduces the acquiring cost of the merchant and makes the acquisition process more convenient. Users can also use scan code payment, face brush payment, contactless payment and other methods when paying to mobile phones.

According to the research report, the global NFC payment equipment market size has reached 16.35 billion US dollars in 2020, and it is expected that the market size will reach 67.71 billion US dollars by 2028, and the mobile phone POS application space is very broad.

Many mobile phone manufacturers are involved in the mobile phone POS market, such as Huawei, Apple and so on. In this field, Chinese manufacturers are at the forefront.

In June 2018, China UnionPay officially released the world's first mobile phone POS product, users only need to download the APP, you can turn the NFC function mobile phone into a POS machine, bank card non-connection and UnionPay QR code acquisition.

According to Huawei's official website, Huawei's mobile phone POS can be opened for free, without the need to purchase POS machines, with the advantages of rapid activation, anytime, anywhere collection, and various collection methods. Huawei mobile phone POS can accept mobile phone flash payment, bank card QR code and other payment methods. In terms of security, Huawei's mobile phone POS is based on TEE security technology to ensure transaction security.

Recently, Apple also announced the launch of a new feature tap to Pay on its official website. The feature allows merchants to receive contactless payments from Apple Pay, credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets over their iPhones, eliminating the need for additional hardware to receive payments. This new payment method is currently limited to the U.S. market and supports Apple Pay as well as Visa, American Express, MasterCard and Discover credit cards. When apple's feature will enter the Chinese market, the follow-up is worth paying attention to.

With the popularity of mobile phone POS functions, will smartphones completely replace POS machines? Will mobile POS be the final form of the acquiring market? Some insiders pointed out that at present, POS machine products also have their own advantages, and the market positioning and use scenarios of mobile phone POS are not completely consistent with traditional POS machines. Although the mobile phone POS saves a certain amount of hardware costs for the merchant, the mobile phone may not be able to complete the high-frequency and efficient acquiring service like the professional POS machine, after all, the mobile phone also carries too many other functions.

Editor-in-Charge: Meng Junlian Editor-in-Chief: Ran Xuedong