Payments is not a consumer product (medium.com)

So, this is PayPal?

At some point I was waiting for something along the line of the optimal solution is no payement, the optimal solution is an upgraded concept of communism...

But it ended up being yet another solution that does the same thing better than existing product and promise to reduce friction... while actually adding a lot because friction to switch to a brand new system is enormous.

Didn't you miss two steps - Go to cart, Pick 'Simpl' payment method.

Also - it's basically reinventing the wheel to be similar to how credit cards in the US work, linked to your email/phone instead of a card. (Not dissing the product, though. I do use, and prefer Simpl when it's available).

But honestly, I'm still waiting for a proper payment system which behaves in a responsible manner while giving me a great deal of control and security.

Using credit cards for online payments is kind of ridiculous. I literally have to take pics of both sides to skim you off. Moving liability to the banks is not an ideal solution. The Indian way of OTPs on every transaction, I agree, has too much friction.

Why isn't there a oauth-like permission based system yet? Where I can authorize recurring payments of fixed/variable amounts, authorize one-time payments, etc, and manage all these merchant at one place? Today, if I have to block a company from charging me, either I go to their website, or get in a long and unfruitful call with my bank.

So, this is somewhat misleading (or I didnt read the full thing)

* Uber already allows you to pay by cash or use a credit card and put in the OTP after your trip

* The PayTM concept is largely due to a discrepancy in regulations, money can be debited from my PayTM account w/o an OTP, but my credit card cannot be charged without an OTP due to regulations

This is just a thinly veiled advertisement for another payment platform.

The example is a bit convoluted. Uber allows you to pay after the ride. I do it most of the time.

There is also an option of paying via cash. I will be surprised if Mumbai airport dint have any options to withdraw cash from an ATM.

Additionally, Paytm has seen people's money disappear from their wallets left and right. And now requires OTP if it detects that the login is from an unknown location. This secures people from getting hacked. Indian banks also do the same. I agree it can be a pain but sometimes security and comfort don't really align well.

If PayTM allows a user to go into negative balance upto a certain limit, the premise for the post no longer exists.

No product is perfect, as basing your product on a missing feature of another is a massive risk.

> This is how you end up with American payment networks like Visa and Mastercard companies charging upto 3%; customers have no chance of negotiating a better deal because they have nowhere else to go

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RuPay

> In 2018, you can quickly tap Zomato and use its tremendous compendium of information to browse through what the top 500 restaurants are, filter it down to 20 by how much time you’re willing to travel, the money you’re willing to spend, and what other people like you say about a place ...

> In 1990, you wouldn’t have heard about it unless you stumbled by during a drive, or someone went out of his or her way to tell you

On the other hand, in 1990, people actually frequently hung out physically with other people who were like them. If the restaurant was good, they would eventually hear about it from one of those people--but not by anyone going out of their way to mention it, but rather simply in the casual conversations people had with friends back then.

I think it is the shift many have made to interacting more online and less in person that makes things like Zomato almost necessary.

I personally realized how much of my socializing is online when my car dealer called to urge me to get an airbag recall handled. I got the driver side airbag recall dealt with promptly when it was announced, but this one is just for the passenger airbag. I told them I was waiting until the next scheduled maintenance, because it has been 10 years since I've had a passenger in my car, so it is not really urgent.

> The correct answer is zero. > Payments should be invisible.

And should be without user consent. It would be the best mobile-first UX. This technology should be called algorithmic payments!

  userWantsToPay : function(user) {
    //doDeepLearningMagic(user);
    return true;
  }

  void website() {
    if (userWantsToPay()) {
      charge_more();
    }
    show_obnoxious_ad_that_calls_the_same_website_function();
  }

Uber in India doesn't require you to key in otp or authorize the payment before the trip. The whole post is based on this false premise.

Or just link your Uber to paytm and preload $100. You won't have to worry about cab payments all through your whole trip.

Well, Paypal and Wechat proof the opposite. Easy, small transactions are very well a high demand product. And even if you can't make money with it directly, you can still use to drive demand and track users in whatever other service you have. E.g. as insurance company I'd be really interested in that kind of data. E.g. as Amazon I'd be very interested in that ease-of-use sale platform.

Off topic but what on earth is with the incorrect comma placement in the numbers?

> 3,64,000 potential transactions could have taken place; only 2,18,400 actually did.