Monday, July 25, 2011
Will techies replace bankers?
Facebook has just announced a partnership with AMEX to provide deals and discounts in some places. Google is introducing the wallet and even working on a full scale payment system through mobile phones. Ebay just acquired Zong for an amount north of $250 million and Gartner expects 141 million people to use mobile payments in 2011. The trend of technology merging with financial services is only getting stronger. Popular technology platforms like Google and Facebook are more and more becoming the distribution channels of payment systems and even small accounts (Google wallet). In several emerging markets (particularly in Africa) Telco operators play the role of banks by allowing users to charge purchases (mostly online but even some offline stuff) to their mobile bill instead of using cash or a credit card. Will this lead to a trend where telcos, dotcoms and techies in general replace or eat a big share of the bankers' cake?
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Or could the telcos and banks just collectively bake a larger cake? I like the changes that both are making to accommodate consumers; it's another sign that B2C companies are realizing that they can no longer dictate to customers.
That said, I also think the costs are too high for, say, a telco to get into mass transaction processing...building the infrastructure, hiring the staff, etc. is a massive undertaking. Perhaps there are opportunities for strategic partnerships / rev shares. Either way, these big companies are coming around to make things easier for you and me and that's progress.
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