Mobile Payment Wearable Device Convergence: Barclays Bank will push the wristband

Tencent Technology News June 8 news, mobile payment and wearable devices, are the hotspots of the current mobile Internet. And these two areas are looking for an intersection. According to the British "Daily Telegraph" reported on June 7, the global financial giant Barclays Bank, is developing a smart wristband that can serve as a wallet for payment.

Barclays Bank's "Barclays Credit Card Company" business unit is responsible for the development of this smart wristband, the product is called "bPay", as its name suggests, payment is its first use. At some of this year's event, the payment wristband will be put into trial use and will be launched on a large scale in 2015.

It is said that this smart wristband can be paid on the platform of more than 300,000 merchants in the UK by means of NFC contactless payment. In addition, the contactless payment technology used in the wristband is consistent with the technology used by Barclays Bank in credit and savings cards, so it can be compatible with existing merchant collection devices.

After the user completes the payment with the smart wristband, the merchant needs to pay a fee to Barclays Bank.

Along with the popularity of the mobile payment market, there have been a lot of payment products on the market, such as mobile phone QR code payment, mobile phone card payment, sonic payment and so on. Barclays hopes to increase the proportion of non-cash payments to consumers by paying for wristband products.

According to reports, in all payments in the UK, the proportion of cash payments last year fell to 53%, and the proportion in 2014 will be less than 50%, which means that traditional cash payments are playing a supporting role.

As a smart device, the wristband has an open application ecosystem. Barclays Bank also said that the function of paying wristbands will be expanded in the future, including sports fitness, music appreciation and other functions. The smart wristband with extended functions, and the boundaries of smart watches will become increasingly blurred.

At this year's event sponsored by Barclays Bank, this payment wristband will be gradually put into use. For example, at this year's "SummerTime" music festival, Barclays Bank will distribute payment wristbands to music enthusiasts free of charge. They can use wristbands to spend at music festivals.

In the future, this payment wristband will also be provided free of charge to UK bank cardholders. Barclays Bank emphasizes that the free wristband is not limited to its customers.

In the mobile payment market, the traditional banking industry is facing challenges from the technology industry, the telecommunications industry, and credit card companies. For example, in the US market, Google (microblogging), PayPal, Square, and the US telecommunications industry have launched mobile payment products. The traditional banks, because of the slow innovation, are the "watchers" in the mobile payment boom.

Valerie-Soranno-Keating, CEO of Barclays Credit Card, said that in the field of mobile payments, Barclays Bank has a long-term relationship with consumers and merchants, a role that will help banks dominate consumer spending habits.

In 2007, Barclays Bank first launched NFC contactless payment technology and products in the UK, and it plans to extend this technology to a wider range of products. According to reports, in 2012, Barclays launched a "payment sticker" called "PayTag", which is bound to the user's bank card account, users can stick it on the phone or even the arm, complete a few dozen pounds Payment. Barclays also has to develop a key pendant with a payment function.

It should be pointed out that the integration of mobile payment and wearable devices can not escape the eyes of highly competitive payment service providers. According to recent reports, PayPal has developed a smartwatch-based payment client. Users of Samsung Smart Watch can use the interface on the watch to complete the payment after downloading and installing.