Forget mobile payments, use your fingerprint
Mobile payments are so 2016.
That’s the belief of one start-up that is hoping consumers will ditch the device altogether and use their fingerprints instead.
Touché, a startup based in Singapore, raised $2 million last June and is launching in restaurants and stores this year, allowing consumers to sign up with their fingerprints and attach their aliases to a credit card, which would enable them to use their fingerprint on any Touché device globally.
But the devices are only at a handful of venues thus far, while the consumer adoption rate has yet to be seen.
While more and more airports globally are requiring biometric information, it is less clear how willing customers will be to hand over their fingerprints for the promise of more convenience.
“Is it their concern? I’ll be lying to say no,” Sahba Saint-Claire, founder of Touché told CNBC. “But I’ve had ladies in their 60s registering, millennials registering, and professional people in suits registering, so I think the solution we’re talking about transcends age, gender and race.”
Consumer interest seems to be growing, though. According to a study by Visa last year, two-thirds of consumers in Europe said they wanted to use biometrics when making payments, while half believed that payments will be easier and faster using the technology.
Meanwhile, global biometric technology is projected to generate nearly $11 billion in revenue by 2022, according to report this week by Allied Market Research, a compounded annual growth rate of 19.4 percent between 2016 and 2022.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with the National Payment Corporation is introducing a biometric payment system in which it promises to eliminate the need of any cards, phone or even internet.
Touché, meanwhile, says it’s product expands beyond just a mobile payment solution.
In addition to payments, the biometric data records the contents of a purchase too.
“What we allow the merchant to do is, is to know who is coming into their business and what they’re eating, how much are they spending, what their preferences are, and therefore, they can actually repeat their repeat business,” Saint-Claire said.
The company charges vendors an installation fee for each device along with a monthly fee, depending on individual partnership contracts.
Source: CNBC
Hello, after reading this awesome post i am also cheerful to share my experience here with colleagues.