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Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

#暑期创作大赛#

Have you heard of China's "New Four Great Inventions"? They are high-speed rail, mobile payment, online shopping and shared bicycles.

It is the emergence of these new inventions that gradually makes our lives easier. In particular, the mobile payment in this has allowed people to enter the cashless era.

However, many people may not know that although mobile payment is in full swing in the mainland. But if you look globally, you'll find that most countries don't have this service. Even in developed countries, payments are made in cash. Why is that? Won't they develop the technology for mobile payments? Or is there any disadvantage or hidden danger of mobile payment that we still don't know about you?

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

Developed countries use cash?

From the current mobile payment data, the gap between the mainland and developed countries is not obvious. For example, in 2022, the number of people using mobile payment in the mainland will reach 1.036 billion, accounting for 74% of the total population.

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

Due to the large number of people involved, the scale of mobile payment transactions in the mainland reached 700 trillion yuan last year, ranking first in the world. Even if you add up the latter countries, their total mobile payment transactions are not comparable to the mainland. It can be said that in the field of mobile payment, the mainland is a well-deserved big brother.

Conversely, in those Western countries, very few people use mobile payments. For example, only 42 million people in the United States use mobile payments, accounting for 14% of the total population. In the UK, 7.2 million people use mobile payments, or just 13% of the population. It can be seen that this epoch-making technology is not very popular in those developed countries.

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

Speaking of this, some people may ask, obviously mobile payment is so good, why don't they use it? Is it just because China invented it? In fact, the reason for this situation is mainly related to the following types of factors.

  • There is a risk of information leakage

The first is that people in developed countries are afraid of information leakage. For example, in the process of mobile payment, where did the consumer go? What did you buy? will be recorded by big data. In this case, consumers are undoubtedly giving their privacy to strangers. At that time, once these privacy are used by others as a tool for profit, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

In addition, many people are also worried that their account passwords will be stolen. After all, today's hacking methods are becoming more and more advanced, and the slightest mistake will be lost. But if you are unlucky and encounter a malicious hacker, then most of your life's money will be lost.

  • Break the Alipay War

For example, two years ago, CCTV broadcast a program in which hackers broke Alipay. At the show site, the column group asked these hackers to target the Alipay account of the host Jiang Changjian and try to transfer the money in his account.

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

In the first stage, hackers used users' birthday information, ID card information and bank card information to launch the first round of attacks on the host's Alipay account.

After the first round of failed password cracking, hackers began searching various websites for residual information left by users. For example, the entry entered in the search engine, the phone number left by the registration app, etc. The hackers then put this information together and matched the password again.

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

When the second round of password cracking failed, the hackers directly sacrificed the last trick, that is, to implant a virus into the program. Use the computer's supercomputing thinking to set out the passwords one by one. In the end, after some operations by hackers, the host's Alipay password was actually obtained.

Of course, given that the Alipay team also has a large number of technical geniuses, the hackers did not succeed in achieving their goals this time. Just as they were about to transfer money, 28 words suddenly popped up on the screen: "The current operation may be risky, in order to ensure the safety of user funds, we have interrupted this operation."

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

It can be seen that the technology of the Alipay team is still a little stronger than the hacker team. Otherwise, Ali Group will really be hit in the face by the live broadcast. Including Ma Yun himself, Alipay will face tens of thousands of hacker attacks every day. If it weren't for the large number of technical geniuses raised by Ali Group every year, Alipay would have been abolished long ago.

It can be seen that there are also reasons why those Western countries do not choose mobile payment. After all, this technology is too risky, without the diamond diamond, this porcelain job cannot be taken at all.

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?
  • Not fully equipped

In addition to the fear of privacy leakage, there is another factor why developed countries do not choose mobile payment, that is, the imperfect infrastructure. In the United States, for example, due to the limitation of base stations, many places cannot support mobile payment at all.

As far as the current situation is concerned, there are 200,000 4G base stations in the United States, and these base stations are mainly concentrated in densely populated areas. As for the mainland, there are more than 5 million 4G base stations, with a signal coverage rate of up to 98%, and even in many mountainous areas.

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

Therefore, in this case, the mainland's advantage in using mobile payment is obviously greater than that of Western countries such as the United States. After all, the foundation of software lies in the hardware, and only when the hardware configuration is in place can the software play a role. Otherwise, no matter how powerful the software technology is, it will not be able to use it in practice.

  • There is more resistance

The third reason why Western countries do not use mobile payment is because mobile payment moves the cake of other interest groups. Many people may not know that credit cards are used particularly widely in the United States, and almost 80% of people in the United States use credit cards, which has also spawned a large number of card industries.

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

Once the United States opens mobile payment, these industries will have to be cleared in minutes. In this case, they are bound to hinder the development of mobile payment. Due to the large number of opponents, mobile payment cannot be rolled out.

In addition, the banking system of developed countries is unlikely to support mobile payments. These developed countries now have thousands of private banks. If you want to make all mobile payments, you have to let these thousands of private banks reach cooperation agreements with payment software, so that bank cards can be bound. Otherwise, the money in those cards will not be spent at that time.

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

The mainland's banking system is mainly directly coordinated by the four major state-owned banks. As for the other small banks, they can only follow the four major state-owned banks.

Therefore, those companies responsible for mobile payment, as long as they sign cooperation agreements with the four major state-owned banks, the mainland's bank card payment system can be slowly laid. Such a unified layout can never be achieved by Western countries.

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

Payment habits are hard to change

Finally, the entire consumer environment in developed countries can only support consumers to use cash and credit cards. As for mobile payment, because there is no supporting platform and equipment, it is basically impossible to do it. After all, if you want to make mobile payments, you must have a QR code, right? But those stores in developed countries basically do not have supporting facilities to scan the code, so how to pay?

In addition, consumers also have a herd consumption habit. Everyone is using cash and credit cards, and you use mobile payment alone, isn't this non-mainstream? Therefore, under the influence of this consumer consensus, many people cannot change their payment methods for a while. In the long run, mobile payment has slowly been defeated by cash payment.

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

A unique payment instrument in the mainland

Of course, when mobile payment was just emerging, Western countries did not try this emerging payment model, but without exception, it ended in failure. For example, Apple once created an Apple Pay, somewhat similar to the current WeChat Pay. But in the end, people who use Apple Pay are better than nothing.

After all, this kind of thing pays attention to an ecosystem, and only everyone in this ecosystem can run the cash flow. If everyone doesn't use it, then the money in it is meaningless. It's like the gold coins in some third-rate mini-games, which are too many and useless.

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

Of course, in addition to the developed countries that do not have mobile payments, those developing countries do not have mobile payments. Countries such as Nepal and Vietnam have directly banned mobile payments. The reason why they do this is actually related to several factors mentioned above. For example, the infrastructure is incomplete, the hacker defense system is not perfect, etc.

It can be said that under the influence of these factors, neither developed nor developing countries can enjoy the convenience and benefits of mobile payment. For now, only the mainland has the ability to make this invention bigger and stronger.

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

After all, the mainland has a huge population, and it can do an internal cycle of mobile payment. In this closed loop, the mainland's mobile payment system is solid, and the user's spending power cannot be underestimated, so it can fully support this huge payment system. It can be said that mobile payment is completely a payment model unique to China.

The future is polarized

It is foreseeable that in the future, mobile payment in the mainland will be like online car hailing, showing a polarized situation. In those cities and counties, mobile payment will gradually replace cash payment, and society will slowly degenerate into a "cashless era".

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

As for rural areas in remote areas, they may still have to rely on cash. After all, some elderly people are illiterate and can't use smartphones, so they can only use this traditional way of consumption. As for how long this phenomenon will continue, it depends on how long the age of aging is.

In short, mobile payment will definitely replace cash payment. After all, the wheel of history rolls, and the torrent of times rushes forward. No matter how majestic the front wave is, it will eventually be patted on the beach by the back wave.

Is the "cashless era" dangerous? Why are the more developed countries are using mobile payments less?

epilogue

In general, the reason why developed countries do not choose mobile payment is mainly related to four factors: they are the risk of leakage, insufficient infrastructure, industry constraints, and difficult to change consumption habits. It is these four factors that have led to the fact that those developed countries can only trade in cash.

As for the mainland, it has just broken through the above four shackles in the course of these years of development. Therefore, being able to do in the field of mobile payment has flourished, and the use of this technology has brought countless conveniences and wealth to the people, which may be the national fortune.