As a startup founder (in my second innings now), I recall hearing what can’t be done (because of some archaic regulation or protectionist policy) more often than what is allowed under the rule of law. Sometimes, these chains weigh in on the mind so much that they prevent innovation and original thinking, and at best, your idea becomes a ‘me too’ of a global precedent in your chosen field (which investors seem to love, by the way).

Although still figuring out the right way to innovate at my new venture (within the rule of law), I’m glad it has nothing to do with anything I’ve done in the past and I’m happy to get to work every day to try and challenge (read trying to circumvent) most guidelines that have been made by the authorities in some of the most heavily regulated industries (Foreign Exchange, Insurance & Telecom) we have in India and also across the world.

Multiple times, I’ve seen global startups popping up in various countries evangelizing an innovation that we had to abandon because of a certain regulation, only to feel good about being on the right track and thinking that our time too shall come.

These are times in the developing world where one tends to leapfrog from Innovation A straight away to Innovation C (like we did in India from Desktop to Mobile, skipping laptops), changing behaviors and creating a massive impact like never before. From spending about USD 1000 on a desktop 10 years back, one can get a more powerful smartphone now within USD 100 (well, USD 4 if we talk about Ringing Bells!). Imagine all that computing power in a six billion palms worldwide in a few years.

India is a billion mobile phone user market, but think about how many Indian firms were able to take advantage of this? Had the Indian electronic manufacturing sector been able to grow to fulfil the needs of the Indian consumer, Apple would already be manufacturing in India and they’d do it out of simple economic considerations (right now, we’re bending backwards to try and get them to come, but they politely decline each time because our current eco system won’t be able to cater to their needs).

A similar leapfrogging is quite possible in currencies, heck, it’s already happening, India and Africa are skipping plastic and straight away going from cash to digital (hello, Bitcoin!) on a massive scale (recall the PayTM karo ads for making payments to the local kirana and the auto-wallah)! While we can think about our wallets (and all that plastic) going away, one can hardly fathom the thought of parting with their phone. This emotion portends the future quite tellingly and it’s just a matter of time when we’ll be using our phones to pay at NFC (or some other cool sounding wireless tech) enabled POS terminals at retail stores around us, using the in-built (Aadhar linked?) fingerprint scanner for authentication instead of the somewhat cumbersome OTP/ PIN based authentication we currently have.

As a startup operating in this space, we keenly look out for developments on currency regulation and although UPI will be a big game changer on the payments front (kudos to the RBI for taking the lead on that), in the currencies space, what will decide whether the next blockchain/ currency startup will be founded in New Delhi or London won’t be the availability of the talent pool, but the policy route taken by the lawmakers and how heavy (or light) they’d keep the regulations for such digital transactions. The decision to be made is whether we want to encourage building a nation of innovators and challengers of status quo, or are we simply going to wait patiently for a disruptor from the west (or shall I say, knight in shining armour) to come and give them a ready market of a billion people on a platter. The time is NOW…

Author

Rishabh Sood, CEO & Co-founder @YuMiGo, is currently working on his second venture which is at core a travel tech startup with a strong fintech angle. He completed his Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering and Master’s in Financial Engineering from NYU Tandon as an Honors Student before moving back to his hometown of New Delhi. Post NYU, he started off in a space that was very close to his heart and built a venture in renewables, scaling up to revenues of USD 2 million and a team of 50, before deciding to move on due to heavy capital requirements and very little differentiation from the competition, searching for a space where he could make a 10x impact.

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Apple Pay, a mobile payment and digital wallet service by Apple Inc will be available in China from tomorrow (18^th February) for customers of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). Apple has already partnered with UnionPay and multiple other leading banks like ABC, CCB and CMB. In totality, 19 banks are on-board.

Greater China is Apple’s second-largest market by revenue. According to China Internet Network Information Center, by the end of 2015, 358 million people – more than the population of USA – had already taken to paying by smartphones. In this region, Apple can face a stiff competition against the Alibaba’s AliPay and WeChat’s Wallet. AliPay is the preferred option for online payments and WeChat’s wallet offers a convenient mode of payment for a variety of purchases.

At an international level, Apple Pay has already been introduced in USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Spain. Apple has had troubles associating with banks in some countries. For example, as per the report, four Australian banks have resisted to collaborate with the brand. Similarly, in Britain, Apple faced a hitch from big banks over fees before relenting. As a result of this, the company has chosen to partner exclusively with American Express in many countries. Elaborating on the positive aspect, it can be assumed that Apple shares a good relationship with Chinese marketers. Unlike PayPal, Apple has managed to obtain the license without any complication. Also, Apple Pay might soon launch in France. Outside of China, Apple faces competition from Samsung’s mobile payment service called Samsung Pay. It runs on a different technology and can see better adoption by merchants. However Apple is moving quickly and taking head start in many markets.

The video by TechCrunch below is worth a watch!

Apple Pay has a great potential in almost all sectors of travel. The payment process will be much simpler now, thereby increasing conversions. This product can easily store the debit/credit card details of the users. This facilitates carrying out online transactions with absolute ease. Consequently, there can be a significant increase in mobile bookings. Travellers can use Apple Pay every time they feel the need to pull out their card for payments.

To read more details on Apple Pay and other mobile payments systems, click here.

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CES was concluded recently and we got to see various interesting technologies that have huge potential in travel industry. Now another major event, the Mobile World Congress 2016, is here bringing the leading tech innovators under one roof. MWC 2016 starts from Feb 22 and like the previous events, it will serve as a platform for tech companies to showcase the mobile technologies of future. Apart from all the mobile phone launches, here is what the tech savvy travellers should look forward to at this year’s event:

#1. More IoT technologies

No major tech event goes without something fresh in this space and MWC 2016 won’t be an exception. Fujitsu said that it will showcase its IoT technologies during the event which will include solutions for automotive and smart transport among others. The Swedish communication technology company Ericsson has also been experimenting with IoT technologies and will be showcasing some of the results at MWC 2016. Other mobile innovators like AT&T, Jasper, KT Corporation and Sierra Wireless will also showcase solutions for luggage tracking and connected cars.

#2. Smarter cars

Expect some of the biggest names in automobile industry to showcase how the cars of near future will be better connected. Skoda is expected to showcase new products running their connected car technology. Ford is also expected to showcase their new in-car technology during the event but they have been a little cagey about what it will be. Ericsson is looking even further into the future and while everyone is fixated at the idea of developing driverless cars, they are experimenting with in car entertainment and productivity solutions with Volvo for the time when driverless cars are here.

(Read: 5 car technologies for the traveller of future)

#3. Growth of mobile wallets

Samsung Pay has been around for a while but the launch in Europe has been long due. Samsung Pay should see better adoption as unlike Android or Apple Pay, it doesn’t rely on the merchant having a NFC based payment terminal. It would be surprising if Samsung doesn’t launch the mobile payment service in Europe at this MWC as the rival Apple Pay has already been launched in the region. It is also rumoured that Google will announce Android Pay for the region but it seems less likely as compared to launch of Samsung Pay.

(Read: Forget your wallet the next time you travel)

#4. 5G technologies

Communication companies all over the globe are investing heavily in the fifth generation of mobile networks. Faster internet connectivity on the go is something all travellers want but apart from that, 5G is going be a major driver for many technological innovations including driverless cars and virtual reality. The roadblock with 4G is not in terms of speed but latency which limits the applications. With 5G, vehicle to vehicle communications for driverless cars can be much faster allowing for safer operations. Nokia will be demonstrating the progress it has made with the same during MWC 2016.

#5. More drones

Intel showcased Yuneec Typhoon H drone with Intel RealSense that can avoid obstacles in real time at CES. At MWC, Intel will be setting up a Drone Zone where they will be showcasing the same. With 2100 exhibitors at this year’s event, we can safely expect more companies to showcase some interesting drones.

(Read: Selfies are obsolete, this is the next big thing)

#6. Green technologies

MWC has always emphasised on going green and this year’s event will see lot of products focusing on green technology. Fuel cell has often been touted as the power source of future and you can expect to see many fuel cell chargers at MWC 2016. Once they go mainstream, travellers can certainly say goodbye to all their power woes. A company called Sunpartner will be showcasing its solution to extend the battery life of a smartwatch to that of an analogue watch.

Mobile World Congress 2016 will be hosted in Barcelona, Spain from Feb 22, 2016 to Feb 25, 2016. You can find more details on the official website here.

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With the latest iOS rolling out to devices, Apple announced their new payment system, Apple Pay. This new mobile based payment system would allow users to pay for various services using their mobile device. Apple pay uses the NFC technology built into the iPhone (only the latest iPhones) to pay from one of your saved credit cards. While we have seen many companies give mobile payments a try in the past, none of them were very successful. This might change with Apple entering the arena as they seem to have done their homework properly. Apple Pay clearly has the potential to change the way travellers pay for things.

Apple is not the only player making a move in this segment. Their Korean rivals have also introduced Samsung Pay with their latest devices, Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. If we believe the rumours, there is a revamped Google Wallet in works as well (Update-Android Pay has been announced at the Google I/O and will be arriving soon). Microsoft is also working on their mobile payment platform which should come out with the Windows 10 for phones. But for now, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay are making the news.

What is Apple Pay?

If you have got an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, you can store you debit and credit cards in the Passbook app and use them to make payments. These payments could either be in app payments (for apps that support apple pay) or at physical stores that are set up for NFC payments. It reduces the friction at a payment gateway and the transaction can be authenticated by simply placing a finger on the home key. For now it is available in US only and we don’t see it coming to India anytime soon.

How is Samsung Pay different?

This was the biggest question when Samsung announced its mobile payment system. While Apple has already partnered with more banks and credit card companies, Samsung uses a technology which is compatible with older magnetic payment systems as well. Samsung acquired LoopPay earlier and have included their Magnetic Secure Transmission technology in the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. It allows the device to fool magnetic card reader into registering a digital signal as a card swipe. It supports NFC payments as well for modern payment systems wherever available. Authentication is using fingerprint like Apple Pay. It will launch in US and South Korea first followed by Europe and China.

Google Wallet didn’t take off. What is different now?

Google came up with the idea of NFC payments a few years back but there weren’t many NFC devices back then. On top of that, NFC payment gateways are costly to set up and retailers weren’t ready to put a lot of money on them until there was a big enough user base. A new technology like this needs to be heavily marketed. It is also important to tell people that it is secure and has got some serious advantages over conventional methods. Apple Pay is already associated with some major banks and credit card companies which is working in its favour. A lot of people remember Google Wallet now because Apple has made a move in the field. It is also simpler to pay using Apple Pay. A simple tap on home key and done. No PIN or password to bother about.

While Apple will get the boost due to good marketing, we think Samsung will also be received well because of the MST technology being supported widely. It is supported at 90 percent retail locations in US already. While the fingerprint authentication on Samsung S5 or Note 4 wasn’t as good as Touch ID, the S6 is able to match the level making the process just as smooth.

What about security?

Both the systems claim to be very secure as they use tokenized payment methods. It is somewhat like the virtual debit cards some banks allow you to generate for a transaction and the actual card details aren’t shared with the seller. In this case, your actual card details aren’t saved on your device either. The card details are stored on card provider’s secure server and they will handle the tokenisation in most cases. Even if someone gets the token details, it is useless for them without the fingerprint authentication. This actually makes it more secure than swiping your debit card.

What would be the impact on travel brands?

Payment systems like Samsung Pay and Apple Pay have got great potential in almost all sectors of travel. They will reduce the friction in payment process increasing conversions. It is annoying to type in your credit card details on the tiny mobile screen. Even if the booking app allows you to save the card details, there are other steps involved in the final payment. Apple Pay can save all that trouble and increase the number of mobile bookings. OpenTable, Priceline and HotelTonight have already rolled out Apple Pay support and others are going to follow soon. JetBlue has announced that they will allow inflight purchases using Apple Pay. Almost every point where you have to pull out your credit card can make use of the technology.

Early verdict

At this point, Apple Pay seems to have the advantage of a head start but Samsung Pay has got good potential. Both the technologies require Apple and Samsung’s latest flagship devices and judging by the numbers we have seen in past, Apple Pay is likely to reach more audience. These two systems will play a major role in where the mobile payments go next.

What is your opinion about these payment systems? How is the travel industry going to receive them? Share you view with us in comments below.

Update-Google announced the successor to Google Wallet and it is called Android Pay. It functions in a similar fashion as the Apple Pay and will be available to US residents in a few months.

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