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Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

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Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#31

Post by rootusrootus »

t8sr wrote: post #7
flerchin wrote: post #2

Literacy rates in India look to be ~80% and climbing about 1% per year. Obviously it'll reach an asymptote, but it's looking like India already surpasses the US in this regard. Of course, given the large population, more Indians are illiterate than there are people in almost every nation. Nonetheless, wouldn't this solution be quite niche? Source: https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/IND/india/literacy-rat...

I thought you were joking about India surpassing the US in literacy rates, and then I looked it up. It's 75 - 85% depending on how you count. What?! How is this number not 99.9%? Developed countries are at 100% or minus rounding error. Even Canada is at 99%, and that's next door. What is going on in the US?

> depending on how you count

I think you got it right there. Be wary of cross-nation statistics without context.

Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#32

Post by nngjmppkjhfd »

misterprime wrote: post #28
t8sr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought you were joking about India surpassing the US in literacy rates, and then I looked it up. It's 75 - 85% depending on how you count. What?! How is this number not 99.9%? Developed countries are at 100% or minus rounding error. Even Canada is at 99%, and that's next door. What is going on in the US?

I'm not sure our Department of Education is effective, and I think some children actually are being left behind, despite the "no child left behind" effort.

Why even consider that another standard could be in use, like others have pointed out in the thread, when you have political priors to confirm? Stay classy HN!

Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#34

Post by hipratham »

rkrishnaan wrote: post #6

Another thing that helps this boom is, in India no one has any problem in sharing their phone number with strangers. Delivery workers, Cab drivers, Restaurant waitlist, you name it. So payment send and receive with just mobile number as the primary key becomes easier.

There is also Virtual Payment Address (VPA) attached to account wiht legit number and bank acct which is good enough to use (share /scan QR code ) with merchant/user name.

Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#35

Post by cuteboy19 »

alsodumb wrote: post #21
sfifs wrote: post #3

I visited India a few times in the last 9 months after digital payments had taken off due to COVID and can attest that these have been game changers that have led shopkeeps to accept e-payments. More than anything to do with literacy, this basically allows Shopkeeper to keep doing what they are doing without fiddling with their phones etc to confirm they received money. The device just says the amount received out lo…

Just to add to this, digital payments in India got popular well before COVID, significantly increasing after the demonetization charade (which imo was a bad decision and total chaos).

The increase due to demonetization cancelled out afterwards. The grown we see now came organically, later

Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#36

Post by alsodumb »

achow wrote: post #30
alsodumb wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've interacted with several vendors who use these sound boxes. The article is a bit misleading in the sense that illiteracy is not the primary driver of the usage of these devices. It is a better check-out experience. Vendors were busy and annoyed by the fact that they have to use their phone to confirm payments which often hindered them from doing their routine to sell more stuff. Think about vendors making street…

Yes right. > The 48-year-old, who can neither read nor write, would need to call his son to confirm that the payment had been received. Looks like the author made up a narrative. These vendors definitely can read numbers, they manage loads of cash through the day. They do lightening fast calculation in their head - which would put a Math grad student to shame. They may not be able to read, write English (or other lan…

I wouldn't be so sure about the author making up the narrative, it very well could be real but it is definitely not the majority.

I get what you are saying, but none of this would put "a Math grad student to shame". If you really think it does, you definitely have no clue what grad students do - sincerely, a grad student whose best friend is a math grad student.

Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#37

Post by bombcar »

eru wrote: post #13
t8sr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought you were joking about India surpassing the US in literacy rates, and then I looked it up. It's 75 - 85% depending on how you count. What?! How is this number not 99.9%? Developed countries are at 100% or minus rounding error. Even Canada is at 99%, and that's next door. What is going on in the US?

I would suggest you double check what definition of literacy the different countries are using. Perhaps the US has a more stringent definition? As an example, for a long time Germany used a way to measure unemployment that yielded consistently higher numbers than most of the rest of the world. So any honest international comparison had to make adjustments. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_Stat…

You also need to see if it’s from official reports based on testing or statistical reports based on surveys. Many people who are counted literate are functionally illiterate- they car recognize street signs, their name, etc but not much more.

Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#38

Post by jonfw »

SaltyGoodness wrote: post #24
t8sr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought you were joking about India surpassing the US in literacy rates, and then I looked it up. It's 75 - 85% depending on how you count. What?! How is this number not 99.9%? Developed countries are at 100% or minus rounding error. Even Canada is at 99%, and that's next door. What is going on in the US?

I was stunned to learn that the average American reads at a 5th grade level. It's true though. I've been wondering why for a while, since it explains so much... Here's my best guess: 13 million children face daily hunger, and politicians fight to take away school lunches. Hungry kids don't learn too good. Fear porn is blasted over every corporate media outlet constantly, to the point where it saturates culture. Peopl…

There are two causes to consider. The failure of society to provide equal opportunities to all, and the failure of individuals to capitalize on what opportunities they have available.

The trouble with your criticism is that you are focusing entirely on society’s failures, when a more complete analysis would consider what can be done on either side.

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