MOBILE WALLETS ON THE RISE IN 2017

Most people have a stash of cards in their wallets, be it credit, gift, or debit cards. A recent survey revealed that an average person carries around 17 of these everyday, and many are finding the task of storing them in one place and bringing it daily inconvenient. Fortunately, with technology gradually invading the world of finance, the concept of mobile or digital wallets came entered the picture and made it easier for people to access financial services they want.

Although they are highly similar, these two differ in the sense that mobiles wallets are incorporated in your phone through applications, while digital ones can be accessed in any form of gadget such as a laptop. A lot of popular e-wallets are operating system specific, while others are based on retailers or brands such as Wal-Mart Pay.

Furthermore, there are several startups emerging in the industry, offering features that are not only angled towards management of your payments transactions but also monitor your customer loyalty programs and gift cards. The common notion that these are less safer than traditional methods is erroneous as well, because digital card managers are equipped with encryption and tokenization technology, plus negotiations are completed more quickly here than through chip card ones.

If you are eyeing to venture in this field, here are some of the promising niches for this year:

Gyft This is a prominent name in the gift card sector, and generates $100B annually in the market. Its offerings enable users to purchase, send, and redeem their cards in more than 300 retailers through mobile apps. This was introduced in 2012 and was financed by Karlin Ventures and A-Grade Investments in an agreement reported to be worth $50M.

Key Ring Launched by a technology veteran, this e-wallet’s main service centers on managing loyalty reward cards. It’s Android app was able to overtake 400,000 installs during its initial year, and had 10M downloads by 2013. It was funded by Australian Ventures and operates as a stand-alone business.

eWallet This is under and independent company and the only one not free to download. It has encrypts and store sensitive data, allowing you to access them using either a single password or touch ID. It keeps everything from passports, insurance and library cards and has a password-construction and retrieval feature in line with every site’s standards.