Tag: e-cash

  • Cash goes mobile and electronic. First to market in Japan and then what? (TTI-Vanguard conference keynote)

    The organizers of the legendary TTI-Vanguard conference series organized a conference on “Futureproofing” in Tokyo, and invited me to give a keynote on Japan’s creativity and first-to-market for many technologies and business models, and Japan’s difficulties to capture global value from this creativity, a phenomenon often called “Japan’s Galapagos syndrome“.

    The organizers, and particularly the legendary Bob Lucky and organizer Hal Levin made great efforts in assisting me to plan and prepare my talk. Although I was given about 30-40 minutes for my talk I was asked to present the conclusions in the first slide at the beginning of my talk and then essentially be prepared for open discussion during the 30-40 minutes instead of giving a traditional talk.

    I picked electronic money, near-field payments and mobile payments as an example to demonstrate Japan’s Galapagos syndrome.

    I started my talk with the following conclusions:

    • Conclusions 1: Japan has invented and first brought to market many new technologies and business models in today’s hottest areas, and Japan has been terrible at capturing global value from this incredible creativity
    • Conclusions 2: why does it take at least 10 years to reinvent the wheel in London?
    • Conclusions 3: WHAT is holding Japan back to capture global value from fantastic inventions?
  • Will cash become obsolete? E-money, mobile payments and mobile commerce (Talk for the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan)

    Gave presentation to the Telecommunications Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) on October 7, 2009. My talk was attended by about 30-40 executives from major global telecom operators, global banks, new-age payment companies, and from major internet companies.

    Outline:

    What is money?

    1. Medium of exchange
    2. Unit of account
    3. Store of value
    4. (Standard of deferred payment, unit for debt)

    e-Cash value to society:

    • reduced cash handling costs
    • Higher transaction speed
    • Convenience
    • Greater security (especially mobile) vs. reduced privacy

    Why should be care? (Summary)

    • Electronic money is here to stay
    • One e-money card/Japanese person
    • 2% of banknotes and coins today
    • YEN 100 billion outstanding
    • YEN 100 billion transactions/month
    • Japan is far in advance, rest-of-world is likely to follow. But can Japan capture the value? maybe not.
    • However: “Galapagos syndrome

    More information in our reports:
    Mobile payments, e-money and mobile credit in Japan
    SUICA and NFC payment for transport
    QR codes are also used for payment

  • Mobile Payment Forum and Eurotechnology Japan KK jointly organize the Mobile Payment Forum meeting in Tokyo

    The Mobile Payment Forum promotes usage of mobile phones for payments, and works on interoperability, usability and standardization issues.

    The major credit card companies (VISA, Mastercard, American Express…) together with the leading mobile phone makers (Nokia, Motorola, NEC…), and mobile operators (Vodafone, DoCoMo, TIM, T-Mobile, Sprint…) lead the Mobile Payment Forum.

    On April 4, 2005, the Members and Directors for the first time held their meeting in Tokyo. Eurotechnology Japan KK took part in the organization of the meeting, and Gerhard Fasol gave an almost 2 hour long keynote presentation about mobile payment in Japan.

    At this meeting, I also had the opportunity to introduce KDDI to the Mobile Payment Forum – there was no previous relationship between KDDI and Mobile Payment Forum.

    Mobile Payment Forum Member’s meeting in Tokyo: “Mobile Payment Forum is a cross-industry organization launched in November 2001 to create a framework for standardized, secure and authenticated mobile payments, based on payment card accounts. The Forum intends to quickly and efficiently act as the bridge between the mobile and financial industries to accelerate the maturity of the mobile marketplace”.

    Expanded version of Gerhard Fasol’s keynote about mobile payments in Japan

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