How the Pays Are Fighting Back in Mobile Payments

August 15, 2024         By: Steven Anderson

There’s no doubt that the mobile payments market is a lot more dense now than it was just a couple years ago. New competitors have shown up all over, and while mobile device manufacturers may have had an edge, their edge has been significantly challenged by the sheer number of upstarts out there. Now, the “Pays” are fighting back with new innovations that may help them recover, as revealed by word sent our way from PaymentSource.

The Pays—named for mobile device brands followed by the word “Pay”, like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and so on—may have started the mobile payments phenomenon in a lot of ways, but they haven’t had such a good time holding onto it. Apple, for example, recently launched a series of ads showing how Apple Pay Cash and iMessage could work together to prod sluggish tenants into paying rent. Samsung, meanwhile, ramped up partnerships with others like Chase Pay to provide more options to the end user.

Google’s sputtering effort is turning to the power of its search capabilities to augment its offering. Chase Pay is backing up Samsung Pay and also pushing more out on its own. Walmart Pay is taking advantage of its market base and offering “near-instant” access to credit. And Venmo, one of the latest entrants, is benefiting from a team up with Uber that’s making some wonder if it’s the “next Uber Pay”.

Essentially, each is pursuing a somewhat unique path to become a competitive advantage. Apple Pay has already built its walled garden; now it’s trying to draw in new users with a whole new use case. In the end, it’s all about adding new users; while there are plenty of ways to do this, the end result is the same. Strangely enough, no one’s poaching anyone else’s turf here. We don’t have two payment systems struggling to be a hit with landlords. No one but Walmart is pursuing Walmart customers. It’s an almost shockingly neat division in the field.

More users means more payments to process, and more money to follow. Plus, every new user in one fold is one more user another provider can’t get. Good times may be ahead for mobile payments users, who will have more options than ever.