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In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

nytimes.com

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Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#111

Post by kondro »

keiwo wrote: post #86
NamTaf wrote: post #52

Everyone in Australia just uses paypass/paywave contactless payment with their credit cards. I rarely carry any signifiant amount of crash for that reason. It's essentially the same as using your phone except you use your credit card and doesn't require a PIN or anything for signature is no longer allowed . Without having used WeChat's approach with QR code scanning, it doesn't seem that different for the end user in…

I'd assume the fee for receiving funds through WeChat QR is significantly lower than the transaction fee for paypass in Australia, which might explain why so many stores have a minimum for card.

Fees for PayPass/PayWave on debit cards in Australia is 7.5¢.

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#112

Post by nichtich »

mcv wrote: post #104
nichtich wrote: post #102

The success of AliPay and WeChat Pay is mostly the result of a good banking infrastructure. Even before these services popping up, you already can transfer money from any bank to another bank instantly and with no fee (or a small fee, depending on the bank and your account type). PBoC has been pushing banks to make interbank transfer efficiently and cheaply for years. The new mobile payment systems just use the alrea…

Instantly, so the money is on the new account directly? It's always surprised me that transfers still don't happen that way in Europe. But feeless transactions from any bank to any other bank also exist in Europe, and have existed for a long time within many European countries. So that's hardly unique to China. Yet we still pay mostly by debit card with pin. But reduced security doesn't sound like a very good idea.

Yes, usually the money appear on the new account in < 1 minute. To facilitate this central bank setup clearing systems that every bank connects to.

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#113

Post by michaelmrose »

DannyBee wrote: post #59
mahyarm wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android was released a couple years after the iphone and it has defined the low end market. From the USA. A big reason why QR codes caught on in China is because everything else was really bad. In america, credit cards were 'good enough' compared to what was in china, so QR codes didn't catch on that quickly. Also because it's a wealthier nation, the typical merchant could afford the hardware required for processing…

"Android was released a couple years after the iphone " This is a really interesting history rewrite, since it was released a year and 3 months later. It also didn't define the low end of the market, since at that point, the iphone was just getting apps (2 months earlier is when the apple app store was released)!

To be clear you are calling the fact that the iphone was only released 15 months instead of 24 months before the first android a history rewrite?

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#114

Post by hkmurakami »

thablackbull wrote: post #21

I think this is a good illustration of the different approach in how China and America approach the consumer economics space. In America, there is a very heavy reliance on "trickle down". We create a "best-in-class", "top-of-the-line" product that only the elite and wealthy can buy into. These people then set the tone of how it will develop in the future. The first mover also tries to do everything in their power to…

You've basically just restated innovator's dilemma.

The market has already been primed for them to engage in a follower strategy.

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#115

Post by lucaspiller »

It sounds like one of the reasons why this has grown so quickly - compared to mobile payments in the west - is that you can just sign up and have it instantly. Apple Pay and the like need your bank and the retailer to support it which doesn't happen straight away. In this case it sounds very much like the dream of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

The article mentions that not everyone has access to it though, if you just sign up why is that (they don't want it or something else)?

And what about privacy? Obviously everything you buy is being fed into a big government database somewhere. Do people in China not care about that (has privacy been eroded so much)?

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#117

Post by Amelia55 »

baybal2 wrote: post #99

Same thing in Russia, but for a different reason. I think no banker in sane mind will issue a credit to an average Russian

I make $82h while I'm traveling the world. Last week I worked by my laptop in Rome, Monti Carlo and finally Paris…This week I'm back in the USA. All I do are easy tasks from this one cool site. check it out, ====http://ow.ly/P0wk30aVXfN

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#118

Post by michaelmrose »

abalone wrote: post #56
HeavenFox wrote: post #24

Born in China and moved to U.S. since college. In my observation, there are several reason for the boom in mobile payment in China that makes it hard to replicate. - Low transaction fee & minimal barrier. For merchants taking WeChat pay, the transaction fee seems to be a flat 0.6%, compared to 2%-3% in the U.S. For the food cart vendors and similar one man shops, they just use the person-to-person payment feature (li…

> the transaction fee, for many, is perceived as a rip off Only if you're a merchant. Most of the 2-3% fee is transferred to consumers via reward programs. It's important to understand that merchants and consumers face different incentives and that US card networks have aligned themselves with consumers.

The merchant is charging more to cover the fees. THEN the user often gets 1% or less back in rewards that are both less flexible and less useful than more cash in your pocket.

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#119

Post by [deleted] »

slantaclaus wrote: post #91
RealityNow wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in NYC, and most stores seem to have $5-10 credit card minimums. America needs to admit that it's no longer the bastion of innovation that it once was (I say this as an American. If anyone doesn't believe me, just take a trip to East Asia). Americans are complacent and fine with not having the cutting edge (not to mention our failing infrastructure). I wish there was a way to change this attitude, but it feels…

South Carolina resident here, no credit card minimums.

[deleted]

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#120

Post by markvdb »

mcv wrote: post #104
nichtich wrote: post #102

The success of AliPay and WeChat Pay is mostly the result of a good banking infrastructure. Even before these services popping up, you already can transfer money from any bank to another bank instantly and with no fee (or a small fee, depending on the bank and your account type). PBoC has been pushing banks to make interbank transfer efficiently and cheaply for years. The new mobile payment systems just use the alrea…

Instantly, so the money is on the new account directly? It's always surprised me that transfers still don't happen that way in Europe. But feeless transactions from any bank to any other bank also exist in Europe, and have existed for a long time within many European countries. So that's hardly unique to China. Yet we still pay mostly by debit card with pin. But reduced security doesn't sound like a very good idea.

The European payments council is working on "instant" SEPA transfers, within ten seconds. The first applications are expected in 201711.

https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/what-we-do/sepa-insta... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

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