The Proven Advantages Of Mobile Payments

The Mobile Payment Your Name Your Institution of Affiliation April 10, 2018 Introduction In the early days of commerce business transactions almost always happen only within certain geographic boundaries. Barters and trades would usually require the physical presence of both the buyers and the sellers so the exchange of commodities could happen. During the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, a radical change has happened as buyers (or sellers) could then transact by sending cheques, which are pieces of paper issued by large government-run financial institutions. However, despite increasing the scope of business transactions and making it more convenient for both parties, converting these papers into printed money requires several days (if not weeks) to clear. This is not yet even mentioning the amount of time that it would take in order to send the cheque itself. These days, purchasing goods as well as making payments have become much easier as private institutions have already utilized innovative technologies so that one person could send a payment instantaneously anywhere in the world with one swipe of the finger, through a technology loosely dubbed as “mobile payments” (MP) or “contactless payment systems” (CPS). Today, while companies like VISA, MasterCard, and PayPal are still leading the revolutions a more inclusive like these, it must be noted that its humble beginnings started during 1997, with the initiatives of the Merita Bank to create a system where anyone could pay through text messages (Nearfieldcommunication.org, n.d.). Nevertheless, despite all of these conveniences, a lot of people still find this new technology as “risky”, arguing that it could make their money more vulnerable (i.e. hacking). Others also argue that one of the biggest risks of the rise of global payments is that it compromises personal security and anonymity, just like the recent news about the NSA (National Security Agency’s) tracking of almost anyone’s profiles, including their purchase history (Poitras, Rosenbach, & Stark, 2013). In spite of all of this, the author of this article firmly believes that in light of today’s context as well as the projected improvements being made (i.e. block chains), the advantages of mobile payments greatly outweighs its risk from 10-to-1. One of the proven advantages of today’s mobile payments is that its adoption rate is incomparable as compared to its attrition rate (people who don’t use it or stopped using it). This is because, throughout the world, state institutions themselves strictly governs the rules of electronic banking, whereas blue-chip finance companies (e.g. VISA) tries their best to make it hassle-free and secure, in order to gain competitive advantage against other companies (Amarshi, 2004). One of the effects of this competition is the adaption of new technologies to keep up with a multi-channel environment. While the author argued that this leads to the “commoditization” of the banks themselves, this improvement was driven by capitalist tendencies still creates a more seamless experience for the customers, such as the users of mobile payments. Aside from bank themselves, there are also a lot of other institutions, which are now adapting payment CPSs without the need f...