Socially Awkward Teens May Drive Mobile Payment Adoption [14Sep11] - 0 views
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In an interview, David Messenger, American Express’s head of online and mobile, tells me they have identified a major pain point among teens and others who are still using cash and checks to conduct a majority of their transactions.
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The conversation got heated when a woman raised her hand to say she didn’t understand why she would ever adopt mobile payments: Seriously, how could a phone be easier than swiping a card?
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Walmart’s SVP of online and mobile, Gibu Thomas, explained that the discount retail conglomerate would never pressure users to adopt it, while T-Mobile Chief Strategy Officer Peter Ewens defended the technology by saying that it improved security.
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He said the benefits are obvious when splitting a check at a restaurant, divvying up rent and utilities among five roommates every month, or being the person who fronts the money to buy tickets to a concert for a group of 10. Those transactions today are largely conducted with cash and checks.
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American Express is also experimenting with using social networks by creating a Facebook application called “Pay Me Fool,” which uses humor as a way to make it more comfortable for someone to bug a friend to pay them back for beers last weekend.
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But right now, Messenger and the other participants on yesterday’s panel agreed on one thing: NFC is still about three years away from hitting the mainstream. It will take a while for users to get NFC-enabled phones and for retailers to have NFC-enabled payment terminals.