The cashless consumption battle is a crowded one – good news for us. $MC $WMT $AAPL $V $WMT $WFC
Mobile payments stories seem to be hitting left and right the last few days. Just yesterday we shared the new Gallop pole showing the continued shift in consumer payment preferences towards mobile payments, as well as MasterCard’s expansion of its Masterpass service. Now today, we get the story from the Wall Street Journal’s Robin Sidel about the brewing war between these various payment systems.
Like any emerging technology, there is always going to be a battle of formats — VHS versus Beta, DVD’s versus MMCD technology, etc. Viewing the situation through our thematic lens and our Cashless Consumption thematic, this is all good news. If companies are committing millions of dollars to developing payment apps —particularly banks — then they too are seeing the underlying movement towards this type of payment solutions, and the marketing of these apps will only help drive the adoption curve.
Will there be pain points? Of course, it’s inevitable.
Eventually a common format will win out and the adoption of mobile payments will move mainstream. From our thematic lens, we see the real long-term winners of this theme will be those companies behind the scenes that are enabling these transactions to occur — and to happen securely — not necessarily the restaurant or store where the consumers are making the transaction.
More banks and merchants are developing mobile-payment products for use in stores, joining the likes of Apple Inc. that have dominated the nascent business. The result is a dizzying range of options for shoppers who must decide which method to use if they want to pay with their phones instead of using traditional plastic cards.What is unclear is whether more choice will make people more eager to embrace smartphone payments or hold back the emerging technology.Payment choices range from Wells Fargo & Co., which will launch its mobile-payment application nationwide on Monday, to Cheesecake Factory Inc., which lets diners pay with their phone at the table with an app called CakePay. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in late June expanded the rollout of its new payment mechanism that is contained within its shopping app.
Source: Wallet War: Banks, Stores Slug It Out With Phone-Pay Apps – WSJ
