"Where do our taxes go, and why isn't our society using this kind of technology?"
An American guy who experienced mobile payment in China asked the soul that mobile payment is now everywhere in China, and even small vendors who buy groceries have their own WeChat Pay QR code. What's even more exaggerated is that now China has launched face payment and even palm print payment.
In fact, not only China has mobile payment, but also mobile payment in India. In 2018, India's mobile payment transaction volume grew by 55%, the fastest growing rate in the world, according to data released by the Bank for International Settlements on November 13, 2019.
But in fact, as early as March 6, 2007, Kenya launched the mobile payment service M-Pesa, the name is a bit interesting, "M" is the abbreviation of mobile phone, "Pesa" is the local language of Kenya in Swahili "money". The popularity of M-Pesa in Kenya is very high, according to the World Bank in 2018, 73% of Kenyans use mobile payments, and even pay salaries through mobile payments.
In China and India, mobile payment methods are strange and have become the mainstream payment methods on the market, and the scene of paying with cash and bank cards has been rare in the past. But the strange thing is that mobile payment can rarely be seen in Western countries, in fact, mobile payment was invented in Western countries, but Western countries have not popularized, why is this?
Some people say, is this not the more developed countries look down on mobile payment? In fact, whether mobile payment is a good thing depends on whether it is used or not.
There are many reasons why mobile payments are not popular in the West, for example, in the United States, where credit and debit cards are well established and very convenient for most people. Against this backdrop, people have become accustomed to using credit or debit cards for payments, so there is less incentive for the mass adoption of other payment methods such as QR code payments.
On the contrary, it is more reasonable to continue to develop on the basis of credit card payments. Chip cards offer better security, contactless credit cards offer better security and greater convenience at the same time, and contactless payments on mobile phones are more convenient and secure. Now that the convenience of customer payment is already good, the impetus for QR code payment is even more limited.
"In the U.S., we already have a very good solution," Dutoit said. "Using a credit card is more convenient in some cases because you just have to swipe the card instead of taking out your phone, unlocking facial recognition, and scanning the code.
And people in the United States pay attention to the protection of personal privacy. Since some well-known websites have had cases of user information leakage, people are also worried that third-party payment platforms may steal or leak their personal information. After all, we can't guarantee that every third-party payment institution is legitimate, and we can't guarantee that every payment institution's employees are law-abiding.
In fact, there have been some cases of employees of well-known third-party payment platforms who have resold user information to other companies such as users' names, genders, dates of birth, ID numbers, home addresses, mobile phone numbers, email addresses, and consumption records. If this information falls into the wrong hands, the consequences will be dire.
Obviously, mobile payment is not suitable for Western countries, but it is not the same in China and India, which are the two most populous countries in the world, they have a vast territory, great differences in culture, language, etc., and inconvenient transportation leads to high transportation costs. As a result of these factors, developing countries have developed a tendency towards local protectionism.
But by using the Internet as a tool, developing countries like China and India can quickly break down protectionism between regions and turn entire countries into one big market.
China's two largest e-commerce platforms, JD.com and Alibaba, have made it possible for users across the country to get essentially the same prices and services through the Internet. With this advantage, the Internet has rapidly developed into the world's most developed market for e-commerce, and the proportion of e-commerce retail sales in total retail sales ranks first in the world.
Indian states have more autonomy than China, which hinders economic development. However, the internet can eliminate this local protectionism, and India's mobile payment industry has gained a huge boost and is rapidly growing with the help of demonetisation mandates.
The ancients said that according to local conditions, a good tea cake is a treasure in the eyes of people who know how to taste tea, but in the eyes of those who don't like to drink tea, it is just a grass cake.