More Than A Wallet Within Smartphones

5

October

2019

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Recently, mobile payment has been introduced in the Netherlands through Apple Pay. Consumers in possession of a bank card from a few banks have the possibility to link their card with their Apple ID account, which they are then able to use to make payments with their smartphone by means of a NFC-chip. In China, on the other hand, bank cards and other cards have already disappeared from people’s wallet for some time now. Today, they can pay for practically everything via their smartphones. There are two market leaders regarding mobile payment, namely Alipay and WeChat Pay. These applications are used by hundreds of millions of Chinese people every day and are much more extensive and compact than for instance PayPal, which is used in Western countries (Beuzekamp, 2018).

To be able to use Alipay, users first must request a Chinese bank account, which should be linked to their Alipay account. Every user gets an unique QR code within the application, which can be scanned at any checkout. During the checkout, the money will be directly withdrawn from their bank account, as it is linked to each other. This provides convenience for consumers, since they no longer have to carry around a wallet. Moreover, Alipay contains several other functions than simply payment. For instance, users can order a meal, taxi, shared bike, flight, train ticket and lots more. In addition, they can instantaneously transfer money to each other without any extra costs or payment processing times (Chinesewebshop, 2017).

Every year, around 20 million Chinese tourists visit Europe. In order to respond to Chinese consumers in the European market, more companies should consider implementing Alipay. Chinese people can use their trusted payment service, which can incline more tourists to travel to and make purchases in Europe. Turnover from companies will gradually increase due to the opportunity of Alipay (Bruinsma, 2018). What do you think? Is it sensible to further bring Alipay to Europe in order to provide the same convenience as in China?

Beuzekamp, N. (2018). Alternatieve betaalvormen: Alipay en WeChat Pay [Online]. Available at: https://www.sepay.nl/blog/alternatieve-betaalvormen-alipay-wechat-pay.
Bruinsma, G. (2018). Chinees betaalplatform Alipay gaat ‘winnen’ van iDeal [Online]. Available at: https://www.ad.nl/economie/chinees-betaalplatform-alipay-gaat-winnen-van-ideal~a969bc56/.
Chinesewebshop. (2017). Alipay [Online]. Available at: https://www.chinesewebshop.net/alipay/.

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China Is Watching Its Citizens

16

September

2019

5/5 (1)

China is a country within Asia, where things work slightly different than in Europe. In terms of technology, China is far above the Netherlands. China is currently the world leader in the field of artificial intelligence. This is mainly due to the amount of data required to fill systems for the implementation of technology. Technology innovation is very expensive, but the Chinese government is providing financial support to technology companies in order to make the country safer. In addition, the Chinese government places high importance on the safety of the Chinese citizens. There are around 200 million surveillance cameras in China and, if it is up to the government, the number of cameras must increase drastically by 2020. At the same time, China is setting up a national database on facial recognition (Chan, 2019).

Due to a lack of privacy legislation, the government, police and technological businesses make optimal use of the technology of facial recognition in order to keep an eye on their citizens. As a result, citizens are spied on without giving their permission to the government. With this technology, the government can capture criminals, trace refugees and find missing children for example.

Almost every citizen is registered in the Chinese database, which amounts to approximately 1.4 billion people (Lentino, 2019). In contrast to the negative issues of facial recognition, such as privacy violation, facial recognition can also be utilized for positive purposes. In Shanghai, this technology is already being used to access the campus. Some universities have the technology of facial recognition stored in their own database in order to open the gates of the campus. Students simply have to face the camera directly while standing in front of the gates. The faces of the students are already scanned within three seconds, which results in entry to the campus. Many students are in favor of this method, because it ensures much faster access to the campus than having to scan their students cards, which they could lose by accident as well.

Let’s face it: We will be seeing more and more of it in the not too distant future.

Chan, T.F. (2019). 22 angstaanjagende foto’s van hoe China gezichtsherkenning gebruikt om burgers in de gaten te houden. Retrieved from: https://www.businessinsider.nl/china-gezichtsherkenning-burgers-camera/.
Lentino, A. (2019). This Chinese facial recognition start-up can identify a person in seconds. Retrieved from: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/16/this-chinese-facial-recognition-start-up-can-id-a-person-in-seconds.html.

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