So this headline would have you thinking that Google is the Behemoth and these guys are just trying to keep up, but that couldn't be further from the fact. In reality Isis is nothing more than a cow on the tracks that has been put there by these wireless and credit card companies as a form of collusion.
Wireless payments are not a priority for the wireless and credit card companies. The last line of the article says it all "ISIS has not yet announced a national rollout plan" and if if weren't for Google why would they ever. The wireless companies are not merchants accounts. They have no history making money off point of sale transactions so this is extremely new territory for them. The credit card companies are scared about disintermediation of the all of the merchant account companies (hanger-ons) that have gotten rich off of playing middle man every time a card gets swiped. Square has shaken things up and merchant fees have gone up because these companies are hearing the death bell and are scared. The best thing for all of these companies to do is to stop mobile payments dead it it's tracks until they find a way to make sure all of the intermediate companies get paid; Enter ISIS.
Google has already demonstrated that mobile payments in action with the Google Wallet, hell Japan has been doing it for years. So why is ISIS trailing so far behind with out any goals or ambitions? Because they have the weight of most credit card companies and wireless companies saying "we aren't sure this is good for us right now" so they all make a deal to sit on their hands and call this anti-competitive deal ISIS. The ISIS website is ironically deceptive because it displays exactly what it's supporters don't want right now, a mobile payment system.
So why do they need ISIS? If they didn't have this deal, then any one of the players could be lured to join the Google bandwagon which would drive up competition. Mobile payments would hit the street sooner than later and threaten the established payment system. By keeping all of the biggest players in credit cards and wireless in a deal to do nothing, they all can feel safe doing business as usual.
No comments:
Post a Comment