November 2024
Mainstream media has recently been reporting the increasing use of point-of-sale payments via QR Code scan particularly by the likes of Starbucks and other corporates.
The reality is that payments via QR Code has been around for a number of years and should become increasingly available. The good news is that this system which provides for payments from buyers directly into the bank accounts of merchants should take Banks, System Providers and Credit Card companies out of the picture. That being the case, the public should cease being ripped-off by way of purchase surcharges and merchants should be relieved of transaction fees.
It can’t come soon enough!
Alibaba launched a mobile version of its online payment system Alipay in 2008 which is operated by an Alibaba affiliate, Ant Group.
Tencent launched its online payment system TenPay in 2013 which allowed users to make purchases and transfer money by scanning a QR Code. It allowed for vendors to accept mobile payments simply by printing a QR Code and posting it up somewhere where customers can scan it. In 2020 China used mobile payment systems to conduct more than one hundred and twenty three billion transactions worth US$67.5 trillion, approximately eleven times the total worldwide credit and debit payment volumes transacted via MasterCard for that year. Unlike the likes of Amazon which can only access what their customers spend on their own in-house platforms, Alibaba and Tencent are able to trace how their users are spending across the whole of China. They can also track where users spend their time online, who their friends and associates are, what their preferences are, what their usages are and what they like to do. Their access to behavioural insight and private data is extraordinary. Unlike the West, it would appear that Chinese citizens are desensitised about the invasion of personal privacy.
