IncentiaPay to crack Chinese tourist market with Alipay
ASX-listed IncentiaPay is partnering with Australia and New Zealand’s largest independent EFTPOS provider to give over 55,000 Australian retailers the chance to target Chinese tourists with discount deals and offers via Alipay. Alipay is an e-wallet payment method that is favoured by the Chinese. In a market update this week, IncentiaPay — known until recently as BPS Technology — said the marketing agreement with Smartpay Holdings was aimed at increasing its exposure to Alipay and the whopping $13 billion annual Chinese tourist spend in Australia and New Zealand. Under the deal, the payment providers will leverage the more than 55,000 merchants across their networks to promote goods and services to […]
Citi partners with Apple Pay
Citi cardholders can now tap and pay with their Apple devices. Citi is the latest bank to jump on the Apple Pay bandwagon. From today, Citi credit card holders can use Apple Pay to make contactless payments with their smartphones or smartwatches. Citi is now one of the largest banks (as well as the likes of ANZ, American Express and HSBC) that has partnered with Apple Pay. Meanwhile, the rest of the Big Four (CommBank, NAB and Westpac) have yet to partner with Apple Pay as a result of disputes over access to the tech giant’s NFC in an attempt to run their own payment apps on iOS devices. Citi […]
How cashless payment technology is helping local business thrive
The days when a trip to the ATM was compulsory before strolling to your local market are numbered. Instead small businesses now find themselves faced with the new breed of “cashless consumer”, and adapting to suit. According to a recent survey by the RFi Group, 32 per cent of Australians believe they can go cashless. Fortunately, the advent of low-cost and low-fuss technology allows local businesses, including sole traders, to sell their products and services quickly and easily, whether it’s a small item or a more expensive impulse purchase. A shift in mindset Michael McQueen, retail trend forecaster and bestselling author of How to Prepare Now for What’s Next, says […]
Who invented Blockchain?
Contrary to popular belief, shadowy inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, did not invent blockchain. So who did? In 1991, Dr W. Scott Stornetta and his co-author Dr Stuart Harber published a whitepaper introducing ‘blockchain’, a decentralised, cryptic database where digital transactions are secured. The cryptographers’ research focused on creating a digital hierarchy system which time-stamped and chronologically secured transactions in a chain of blocks. Together, they co-authored several publications in the cryptography field to pioneer a system that was transparent and verifiable. The first major blockchain innovation came in 2008, when the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin whitepaper. Bitcoin is a digital currency which can be bought and transferred […]
How you may be confused about Ethereum
According to Coinmarketcap.com, Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Bitcoin leads with a cap at slightly over US$100 billion, and Ethereum follows at about US$40 billion. While this evaluation is commonly accepted, it isn’t entirely accurate. The assumption places a false equivalence in the mind of anyone exploring the number two cryptocurrency after learning about it through Bitcoin. The coin versus the blockchain Most importantly, Ethereum is not actually a cryptocurrency but a protocol with a blockchain on which, theoretically, an infinite or endless number of cryptocurrencies can reside. Its equivalence is Bitcoin, a protocol with a blockchain that only supports the bitcoin (BTC) cryptocurrency. In the […]
NAB launches Google Pay across its debit and credit cards
This adds to NAB’s existing contactless payment options of NAB Pay and NAB PayTag, Samsung Pay, and Fitbit and Garmin smartwatches. NAB has today announced the launch of Google Pay across both its debit and credit cards, enabling customers to securely make contactless payments with their smartphone or compatible device. Google Pay allows customers to make tap and go payments with their smartphone in store and online, instead of using their physical credit or debit card. Just like when using your debit card to tap and go, when using Google Pay customers won’t need to enter a PIN for their transaction unless it’s more than $100. Google Pay is Google’s […]
Founded by the crowd: the new way to invest in Australian businesses
Equity crowdfunding is a relatively new way for Australians to invest. It’s a smart way to collect donations for a charity cause or raise capital for new products and with recent changes to Australian investment laws, crowdfunding platforms can now be used to raise equity capital for a business startup. This change opens a new funding stream for fledgling creative companies to gain investors and get their idea into the marketplace faster. So what opportunities and pitfalls are there for businesses who are considering equity crowdfunding? Three forms of crowdfunding There are three forms of crowdfunding and first up is, Donation or Charity based Crowdfunding, which has been available to […]
Novatti launches brand new payments bridge between Australian BPAY and Chinese Alipay
The international online payments landscape is rapidly evolving as yet another ASX-listed payments processor, Novatti Group (ASX: NOV) announced the launch of a bill payment service, able to bridge the gap between Australian supply and Chinese demand. Novatti announced the launch of its new bill payment service chinapayments.com, a financial technology (fintech) platform enabling consumers to pay bills via Australia’s BPAY system, using funds from their Alipay wallet. The race for payments dominance in Australia is truly on with several companies now vying to become the go-to brands to court Chinese customers. Last month, Smartpay (ASX: SMP) struck a deal directly with Alipay, with the deal bringing together the largest […]
