Hacker News Reader

Comment by paradite | Hacker News Reader

> a.) can do things without switching apps. (?!)

Another term for this is integration. It is not just about not switching apps, it is about ingratiating different features (chat&social&payment&voucher) and providing a natural and consistent experience for users in a single app. You don't see that quite often for SV companies.

How innovative is this? I am not sure, but definitely something new and first popularized by Tencent in the era of QQ before 2008.

> b.) uses QR codes (invented by Japan, popularized by Japan)

Not main point of the article, there are plenty of other innovations in the areas of living streaming and drone technology, but unfortunately you missed them.

> c.) pay things on phone (invented by nokia, popularized in europe)

Not sure about how Nokia and Europe did it, but in China you can pay movie tickets, utilities, taxi fees, fines, etc in a single app. Maybe Europe was a pioneer in this and I wasn't aware of that.

View on HN

Check out for swish in Sweden: "According to Arvidsson, the Swedes love Swish so much, it’s already revolutionising the local banking system, with several major banks refusing to accept cash at all, and as of late last year, four out of every five purchases in the country were being made electronically."

Payment by phone is already a big thing here.

Thanks for sharing this.

In terms of mass adoption of cashless transaction, the timeline in two countries seem to be parallel:

http://www.businessinsider.sg/wechat-why-it-dominates-china-... - AUG. 11, 2015

http://www.sciencealert.com/sweden-is-on-track-to-become-the... - 16 OCT 2015

I had never heard of Swish until now. Very interesting. I know there are some differences, but how is it fundamentally different from something like Square? https://squareup.com/

Thank you

Square has a mobile phone payment option, but most of their actual use is as a small-merchant credit card processor. They have no integration into larger stores (which have their own card readers), and as a result there's no real point for users in setting up their mobile pay system. My credit card works with Square and everything else, an app would only work with Square.

Not familiar with Square but Swish started as an app for payment between individuals, such as friends sharing a restaurant bill or payment of used things (think Craigslist etc). People even use it as payment for used cars. It was developed by all major banks in cooperation, so huge network effect from start, uses the well established "mobile bank id" for authorization and is instant and currently free. The instantaneousness means that you feel safe to hand over the keys (in the car sale case) the moment your app beeps to confirm the transfer, which is within a few seconds after the buyer authorized it on his phone.

Later a version for merchants was developed.

Ok that makes sense. I work in finance and was wondering about what other countries/companies are doing. Thanks for the info.

One thing that I was thinking about though was about the regulations and scare around security might be hindering development here in the U.S. .

Again, thanks for the info.

Some additional info: your phone number is identifying the transfer target, and is associated with your debit bank account number behind. So you don't have to share anything additional, if your friend or the buyer has your phone number he can initiate a transaction.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com