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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

#51

Post by HeavyFeather »

ryzvonusef wrote: post #49
ape4 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the merchant has to buy/rent a device. I expected it to be phone-to-phone for such wide acceptance.

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…

> it would never work

Ask Thailand and their QR-code based payments, TrueMoney and "Thai QR", because that's exactly how they work. Maybe scammers are less prevalent in Thailand than in India so they go by trust, even in 7-Elevens.

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

#52

Post by SaltyGoodness »

jonfw wrote: post #38
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…

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.

Sure, everyone ought to do what they can to better themselves. That's for another comment, because the question was, what is it about America that has literacy skills at such a shameful level.

It's not Brad's fault that he can't read good. It's not Chad's fault that he hasn't picked up a book. These hypothetical kids are 6, 7, 8 years old.

That's on us, and our willingness to allow their home lives to be miserable rather than pay for mental health supports and education as a society.

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

#53

Post by CyberDildonics »

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...

> Obviously it'll reach an asymptote

I think you mean the increase will level off.

An "asymptote" would mean it is always getting closer to some target number, and there is no reason that would be 'obviously' true.

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

#54

Post by HeavyFeather »

ck2 wrote: post #20

Is it a crazy suggestion that you could put a display on the smart speaker and teach a small subset of literacy for them to see what is being said? Could someone learn a small amount that way? I've seen countless stories of people who come to the US and learn some english by watching TV with the close captions turned on, has to work elsewhere?

What's cheaper to program and produce: a speaker or a display and chip?

I think that this device is super smart. It's a "cell phone" chip that "reads" the texts out loud when received from a hardcoded number. It could cost a few dollars.

The only cheaper thing would be upcycling existing smartphones, but that would be a support nightmare.

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

#55

Post by rkagerer »

alsodumb wrote: post #5
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'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…

How exactly does the experience work? e.g:

  - How does the customer know how much to send and where?
  - How quickly does the confirmation come through?  Does it say who the money is from?
  - What happens if the vendor is distracted and misses the confirmation for a particular order?

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

#56

Post by kevinsundar »

rkagerer wrote: post #55
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…

How exactly does the experience work? e.g: - How does the customer know how much to send and where? - How quickly does the confirmation come through? Does it say who the money is from? - What happens if the vendor is distracted and misses the confirmation for a particular order?

1. The merchant tells them the amount and there's a QR code on the box to scan.

2. Within seconds. When I paid while over there it was 2 - 5 seconds. It doesn't say who the money is from though.

3. The merchant has to check their phone or trust the screen on the customers phone.

It works surprisingly well for 95% of use cases. Usually more than one person isn't checking out in parallel. It lets the merchant continue cooking / packing your items / pouring a tea for someone else / etc.

Video demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUR84Qz0KbM

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

#57

Post by oefrha »

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…

> The device just says the amount received out loud and at that point, the customer can leave with the goods. Haven't seen this tech anywhere else.

I’ve seen this in China many years ago on both PoS terminals and smartphones. Guess it shouldn’t be surprising that Paytm brought this to India, given that Alibaba/Ant Financial at one point had a significant stake in it.

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

#58

Post by spaceman_2020 »

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…

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.

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

#59

Post by JohnFen »

411111111111111 wrote: post #46
hedora wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes so much more sense than illiteracy. The phone app could just have a thumbs up with a number or a thumbs down, after all. It suggests having a tv-like display would work about as well, and be less noisy / distracting.

What do you think is cheaper, a touch display with a a chip that can render graphics etc or a speaker playing an audio stream from a webservice?

From a hobby point of view (meaning that I purchase these things in very small quantities), then cost of both of these is comparable.

I'm ignoring the "touchscreen" part, though, because that's not necessary. I'm thinking just a basic, small TFT display.

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

#60

Post by aatharuv »

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...

Africa is possibly another target. Its literacy rates are a little bit under India's, and it's another place where digital payments have gone big, even earlier than India.

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/SSF/sub-saharan-africa...

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