Singapore— Rolling out new technologies like mobile money or NFC needs many stakeholders to make changes before they reach critical mass.
As he heads out in the Frogmobile with Sista Barista to do in-depth café research, JFDI.Asia investor James Kao shares his experience of using Square with Meng Wong and Hugh Mason.
Meanwhile, Ong Chiah Li hears that in several places round the world, NFC roll-out isn’t happening as fast as its proponents would like everyone to believe. And belief matters, if independent app developers are going to set aside time to create services depending on it …
Interesting you think Square and Mobile Money aren’t already mainstream. With over one million US merchants already using Square, it’s the 4th largest merchant acquirer and accounts for 1/8th of all card enabled merchant. That’s mainstream already
Its just the start and you can expect early 2013 for the space to hot up.
Add to the fact that many NFC implementation are localized to the country of issue, it would take a while to replace EMV or swipe (and swipe is still around!). Country (maybe Singapore) that moves fast ahead may find that there are more change to do in order to align once the act get together.