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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

#91

Post by as300 »

manojlds wrote: post #85
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes go weeks without realizing that I have literally zero cash in my wallet. I was using UPI so much that my credit card usage had dropped to almost nothing. Literally had to force myself to use the credit card more to accumulate some rewards.

Ironically, it's for Uber (and Ola) - the services that made us move away from cash for taxi and auto in the first place - that I have to carry cash for since the drivers just won't come without cash payments. UPI is better, but they will have the have to fill petrol excuse.

I may be misremembering, but I thought you can fill petrol with UPI too?

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

#92

Post by SaltyGoodness »

908B64B197 wrote: post #62
SaltyGoodness wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Schools are funded based on local taxes. Neither political 'team' seems determined to change this. Teachers often have to buy school supplies out of their own meagre pocket. Kids in schools that don't have money don't learn too good. This one is mostly a myth. States and federal grants will equalize money per pupil across different school districts. Some of the worst performing school districts in the country also…

[dead]

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

#93

Post by HHalvi »

ramshanker wrote: post #79
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes go weeks without realizing that I have literally zero cash in my wallet. I was using UPI so much that my credit card usage had dropped to almost nothing. Literally had to force myself to use the credit card more to accumulate some rewards.

Ditto. I close few credit cards because of usage drop. Paying with UPI is easier and at least 10x accepted. Moreover, within a year or so, UPI will start accepting Credit card linking as well. Things are really moving FAST here.

Credit Card linking with UPI is live for sometime now [0], currently limited to Rupay cards. I have been using my HDFC Rupay CC to pay for Merchant Payments that accept UPI for last month or so.

[0]: https://www.rupay.co.in/rupay-credit-card-on-upi

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

#94

Post by throwaway280382 »

Not mentioned in the article but I asked a shopkeeper why they use it. Answer is fraud. Earlier, customers would download a "fake" app, which miciked online gateway's UI. Customer would punch in money, and show to shopkeeper that "payment went through". Customer takes goods with them and leaves. Shopkeeper looses money.

With this sound box, shopkeeper gives goods ONLY after the box makes sound. Now imagine if a elderly or illiterate relative of shopowner is manning the shop. They may not know how to operate their "banking" app to make sure money has reached. The sound box removes that problem.

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

#95

Post by signal11 »

justanotheratom wrote: post #89
signal11 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In my latest trip, I don't believe I paid cash in any shop and I was in a second tier city the whole time, not one of the big metropolitan cities. If you’re a tourist or business visitor, this isn’t possible. UPI isn’t available to you. Also note that many smaller shops which accept cards and do accept India-issued MasterCard/Visa/Rupay won’t take MC/Visa issued abroad, because their payment providers charge them e…

Yes, visitors can make UPI payments now. See recent news: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/invest/in-bound-tra...

This is promising, but it’s not as exciting as one would assume — it’s a very limited rollout, ensuring the use/don’t use UPI decision has to be made quite quickly for people unfamiliar with it, which is most tourists.

> To start with, it will be available to travelers from G-20 countries, at select international airports (Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi).

> Eligible travellers would be issued Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) wallets linked to UPI for making payments at merchant outlets.

> The PPIs shall be issued after physical verification of the passport and visa of the customers at the point of issuance.

Also good luck finding the UPI PPI sale point. And of course it’s extremely limited, to 20 countries.

And the big one

> PPIs can be issued in the form of wallets linked to UPI and can be used for merchant payments (P2M) only.

This is “limited UPI” — you can’t use it for P2P payments or paying your friends and acquaintances. And does UPI Merchant Payments have payment protection / easy dispute resolution yet? If not, tourists would be far better off sticking to cards.

So yeah, good on the RBI for making a start, but this doesn’t help tourists realise even a fraction of UPI’s convenience.

I’m sure one day visitors and regular tourists will be prompted to set up a UPI wallet when they get their visa / eVisa, top up UPI online across the length and breadth of India, and in fact be able to top up their UPI wallets before landing in the country. But there are many bureaucratic barriers before that happens.

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

#96

Post by bobsmooth »

fandorin wrote: post #64
ryzvonusef wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

from my research, here is what I've found: 1- The govt insists the payments be done on their national backbone, which works on 0 markup, so companies have to find different avenues for revenue 2- The device is essentially a mobile phone with no display(newest version has a small pocket-calculator sized lcd, but most do not) and just four buttons: power, volume up, volume down, and repeat last message. It takes a SIM…

do you think such payment flow would work in the US / in the EU as well? I know that for example in Sweden Swish is super popular and you can pay with it in stores by scanning QR code (and then showing your phone to the merchant) - seems like such device could fit there perfectly.

In America there's contactless payments with your phone. The merchant's POS will confirm the transaction like it would with card or cash.

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

#97

Post by kwhitefoot »

Sounds very much like the Vipps system we have in Scandinavia, particularly Norway, with the addition of something like the Android Voice Notify app which reads Android notification. My mobile phone has been doing this for years. Whenever I receive a payment it reads it out to me. No need for any new devices.

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

#98

Post by spaceman_2020 »

HHalvi wrote: post #93
ramshanker wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ditto. I close few credit cards because of usage drop. Paying with UPI is easier and at least 10x accepted. Moreover, within a year or so, UPI will start accepting Credit card linking as well. Things are really moving FAST here.

Credit Card linking with UPI is live for sometime now [0], currently limited to Rupay cards. I have been using my HDFC Rupay CC to pay for Merchant Payments that accept UPI for last month or so. [0]: https://www.rupay.co.in/rupay-credit-card-on-upi

Any good cards on Rupay? Last time I checked, all the good rewards were on Visa/Mastercard

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

#99

Post by kwhitefoot »

pimlottc wrote: post #82
villgax wrote: post #12

They do charge a subscription fee for it, but sadly enough this could have been done with any speaker they had & using the official app as well

That would require leaving a smartphone and a speaker lying around where they might be stolen. Having it be a cheap, single-use device reduces the incentive for theft.

You can buy a smartphone good enough for the job for less than 60 GBP even in the UK, I'm sure they can be had for considerably less in India. And it doesn't need to be lying around, the user can have it on them.

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

#100

Post by Freedom2 »

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.

This is one of the most unique things about India that I haven't seen in any other country - the openness and community between its citizens. Especially proud to be Indian!
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