From Bangalore to Beijing, when Asians go out to shop, they seldom use a credit or debit card and instead pay using their smartphone to scan a QR code.
Dynamic codes are generated for each unique retail transaction. A shopper visiting a convenience store and selecting items worth $10 would present them to staff who would scan them all, after which a point-of-sale terminal would display a dynamically-generated QR code. That state of affairs meant that the West’s embrace of near-field communications tech to power tap-to-pay services that relied on credit and debit cards – either standalone or virtualized in smartphones – had little chance of success in China.
Interoperability also matters in countries where the banking sector is more mature, such as Singapore where a system called PayNow links QR code payment schemes. "The hawkers started to have multiple QR codes, so when you arrived you had to scan for each wallet to use and it became crazy. Error messages made it messy," explained Dr Ondrus."So the Monetary Authority of Singapore quite brilliantly decided on one single QR code provider for all of Singapore. It linked to the operator, which became the provider called ‘NETS,’ which made payment happen.