Name: Are Mobile Payment Apps Here to Stay?
Uploaded: 2015-12-02
Duration: 5 min
Description: Fortune staffers debate in this episode of 'Fact or Fiction.'

[ NOISE ] A growing number of companies would like you to leave your wallet at home and pay for everything with your phone. Is it realistic? Here to talk mobile payments are fortune writers Robert Hackett, Aaron Griffith, and Dan Roberts. Guys, thanks for being here. So we're gonna play fact or fiction. I'm gonna lob you a question and you're gonna show your cards and tell me if I'm right or wrong. Ready? Here we go. First question. Apple, Google, Samsung, they've all made their mobile payment apps attractive to the average user. Fiction, fiction, fact. All right. What gives? Why? Well, I think they've made delightful products. [ LAUGH ] And if I'm gonna call out one in particular, Samsung has created a technology where you can actually use your smartphone On a magnetic strip reader as well. It's a really awesome product and I think they're doing very well. Mr. millennial would say that their products are delightful. I do. Well, I always use the average example of say, my parents. They are in their mid sixties They're not ancient. They use e- mail, they use Facebook. But do they use their phone to pay for things? No, and the concept is still so far into them. The credit card is still a really good piece of technology for my mom. Is that why you disagree? I agree. I think that you know the early adopters might be paying with their phones but the late adopters are still just getting phones and figuring out how they work and setting them up. And my parents also ask me to download apps for them. So I think it's We're a very long way from everybody, universally, paying for things with their phones. [ INAUDIBLE ] plastic. Much farther away than people say. All right, all right, so that brings us to our next question. Very good. Banks moving into mobile payments have an advantage over other tech companies. Fact or fiction? Fact, fact, and fiction. Dan, let's start with you. Look, these guys are entrenched, endemic corporations that have a huge customer base. There's a reason they've been around as long as they have. They understand the payments industry. I mean, this is a space where young players wanna come in and square and mobile companies, and they're making some progress with people like us and they're growing, but to compare the two, I mean the big giants know what they're doing, they have the relationships to establish this technology. Robert you disagree, why? I do disagree. Sure banks have been handling financial transactions for longer, but what is really going to matter is the consumer experience. If you got a company like Apple that focuses entirely on design, entirely on making. Making that experience for the customer superb. That is what's really going to kick it into a high drive. So let's talk about experience here. Next question, fact or fiction? Retailers are anxious to embrace mobile payment technology, fact or fiction? All right, Erin, I'll start with you. Fiction. Why? I think that they are talking a big game [ LAUGH ] and that they know that is gonna be important because right now all of their online sales could be happening on mobile phones because people are spending more time on their phones but They're not converting as well as they are. They're finding a product on their phone and they're going to their computer to actually buy it. And the reason for that is because the technology isn't there, and no one has really figured out are we gonna shop inside apps? Is it gonna be on the mobile web? Are we gonna have a universal wallet for the whole phone? It's all very confusing, both to retailers and to consumers. And so right now, I think that they would love to have that but they don't know how to even begin. I smell anxiety. Dan? Well I think that they're anxious and they're ready to embrace it. Whether they're embracing it properly is a different question. Whether it's working well is a different question. But do they want to get involved? Yes. I'm seeing the Apple Pay sticker slapped on every store I go to, but again I don't know that they necessarily understand and are offering it the best way they could be but they know that this is something they should care about. And Robert. So banks have dragged a lot of retailers kicking and screaming to update their terminal systems to be compatible with chip card readers. And this is a great opportunity. Retailers that are looking far ahead are updating them so that they will be compatible with mobile payment technologies. And as a result, I think they're very excited about it. All right so that brings us to our last question. None of this matters because BitCoin or another virtual currency will take over the world. Fact or fiction? Fiction, fiction, fact. All right Dan, why fact? It's a half fact. BitCoin's not gonna take over anything. BitCoin's not gonna replace the dollar. That's true, but the technology that underlies BitCoin is very exciting, the blockchain. And I caveat that by saying a lot of places right now are making that same sound bite. They say oh well BitCoin, forget about BitCoin, but the Blockchain, and a lot of them don't actually understand it. But the point is it's a publicly distributed ledger and a lot of other places like banks can use something similar. So not BitCoin the currency, but BitCoin as a technology is very Interesting. Erin, you'd rather have cash or cards? We have a system in place that seems to be working [ LAUGH ] fairly well. I don't know why we'd need to just completely blow it up and. Yeah. Okay. [ CROSSTALK ] Didn't work well there. State party. Currency. And are they using BitCoin now? [ LAUGH ] Not yet. And Robert. I don't think BitCoin is going to come to dominate but right now it's a fringe currency. It'll move more into the main stream as it gets more regulated. But as for right now, it's gonna always be an alternative to the current options. These were all excellent points. That conclude this episode of Fact or Fiction. Thank you all for playing. [ MUSIC ]

Fortune staffers debate in this episode of "Fact or Fiction."