I think we are witnessing the QR Code tipping point in Japan. After yesterday’s 7pay ‘latest in a series of QR Code payment system security meltdowns’, IT journalist Tsutsumu Ishikawa tweeted, “It’s time to promote FeliCa for Japanese cashless.” Ishikawa san also retweeted Twitter user S: “QR is so over,” who goes on to say that the low bar QR Code entry point only resulted in incompetent players setting up payments systems. The resulting mess and confusion ends up destroying the very cashless migration momentum the industry worked hard to create.
Mobile FeliCa has a 15 year track record of fast secure transactions that just work. Ishikawa san is right, the Japanese payments industry needs to leave any remaining Galapagos syndrome nonsense (which was a setup btw) in the past and focus on promoting FeliCa again. Apple Pay is a global NFC platform with FeliCa support as a given on every iPhone and Apple Watch it sells. Google Pay supports FeliCa too. For Apple and Google, it’s just one NFC thing. That’s all the support and encouragement necessary for the industry to march confidently into the future and ignore the QR Code sideshow.
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