Another Apple Pay Competitor Emerges, This Time In Sony

First it was Apple Pay, then Samsung Pay, then Android Pay, then LG’s answer to it all in G Pay.

It was easy to wonder just who’d be next in the lineup to go after the brass ring of mobile payments, and indeed, a new challenger has arisen in Sony. Sony’s approach will be a little unusual, but it’s still going to be a noteworthy one.

Essentially, Sony is looking to take a little slice of the Asian mobile payments by focusing on the public transportation market. Sony’s FeliCa program is well-known on Japan’s railway network, and works via a series of chips that can be built into either smartphones or plastic cards about the size of those normally found in a wallet.

A contactless payment system, FeliCa isn’t just for paying train fares; reports suggest it’s actually used in many other places, including in convenience stores and as part of door key systems. A portmanteau of “Felicity” and “Card”, FeliCa—to use Sony’s words here—looks to “…make our daily lives more convenient and enjoyable.”

The technology behind FeliCa has reportedly been seen elsewhere before now, which is a plus, and reports suggest that Sony wants to bring the FeliCa system to several points throughout Southeast Asia, starting with the Indonesian train system by March 2016.

The idea, according to reports, is to get users and vendors used to the idea by making it available on the high-traffic railway system and then get said users to look for it in other places.

This would be a terrific move for Sony, who hasn’t exactly been having its best years in recent memory. Wide-scale sales of the FeliCa system, along with FeliCa readers, would be a great new revenue stream for Sony and help give it a little better financial footing.

The bad news here, of course, is that Sony’s walking into a very crowded market, even in Southeast Asia. With services like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and all the rest—not just from companies with the word “Pay” after the name, either—in play, Sony may have a bit of a tall order on its hands to wrest control away from a wide array of firms looking to make a move in that region.

However, since the FeliCa system has actually been around a lot longer than any of those newer services, it could have something of an edge in terms of name recognition and a potentially better reputation. That and being around as long as it has in a market as substantial as the Japanese market certainly recommends it to even the most staid of providers.

Sony will be walking into hotly contested ground, but it won’t be walking into that market unarmed. It’s got a clear plan, and some very clear benefits to its approach that might be enough to give it the edge. It’s not going to be an easy fight by any stretch, but it could work out well for Sony, who could use a few more successes to its name these days.