Winston Churchill once said, “Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.”
The same can be said for innovation in the payments industry as well, as companies are charging forward, thinking bigger and providing services in ways that previously couldn’t have been imagined.
One payments innovator is Korea-based Harex InfoTech, an electronic payments provider founded in 1994. Over the years, Harex InfoTech has placed an emphasis on innovation, unveiling the world’s first mobile payment card system in 2001 and introducing its latest cutting-edge technology MoCa PAY in 2012.
MoCa PAY is unique for its user-centric payment service that upends conventional payment networks. Unlike traditional two-sided networks, where payments cards send information to merchants, MoCa PAY creates a three-sided network where users, merchants and banks and issuers all converge in one comprehensive solution.
MoCa PAY accomplishes this by altering the traditional payments process. In its system, payment requests are sent directly to financial institutions after receiving transaction information from merchants. This switch reduces the risk that card information will be compromised during the transaction process, and allows consumers to use payment methods of their choice – QR code, barcode, NFC and push notification- to reimburse merchants.
So, where did Harex InfoTech get the inspiration for its award-winning technology? According to Kyung Yang Park, founder and president of MoCa, its road to innovation began with simple questions.
PYMNTS.com: How would you define your company’s approach to innovation?
Kyung Yang Park: We ask ‘Why?’ We ask ‘Why not?’ We ask ‘Is this what users want?’ We try to determine if it’s good for banks, card issuers, merchants and partnering companies. We define innovation as challenging the status quo, breaking the rules, completely reversing the existing process if it’s needed for user’s value. We also factor in the human value, our sharing, IT and humanitarian policies.
What is the most innovative thing that you have introduced into the market – and what value did it deliver to the stakeholder group that was its target?
I changed the conventional merchant, POS-centric payment process into a user-centric, smart, integrated payment service that integrates loyalty, coupons, membership and payments all in one, with only a PIN and the user’s smartphone. It cuts down on process time more than 80 percent in a convenient and secure way, with no credentials passed to the merchant and none stored on the phone.
This process created a three-side multiservice network and gave values to users, merchants, banks and card issuers. It opened the age of Payment 3.0, where user-centric payments, fast and easy payments, reverse process payments, integrated payments (coupon, membership and payment all in one), sharing (from Marketing 3.0) and IT humanitarian and easy donations are possible.
Where do you look for innovative ideas and why?
I look at the user’s behavior in field and think ‘How can this be better than it is now?’
‘How can I give the user value and happiness?’ Working with ideas from the real field is different from working with the ideas at the desk. I call it IBWA (Innovation By Walking Around, or Ideas By Walking Around).
What do you think that most people underestimate about innovating in payments?
Most people are caught in the plastic card age – where you store card info in a device and give that info to the merchant terminal. Most people think that it is difficult to change the network process, so they try to add additional hardware that isn’t cost effective. But times are changing. Smartphones can support any kind of network process. We can change the rules, create the values, make a new way of processing the transaction and integrate the world with a user-centric, human-value network.
What person or company do you think “gets” innovation and why – and, conversely, who or what has missed it and why?
The people who challenge the assumptions of the status quo, who want to change the world for the better, can innovate. They believe innovation will change the world. Conversely, people who accept all the assumptions can’t see the future. They never challenge the status quo, so they can’t cause disruption.
What advice would you give a young innovator in this space and why would you tell them to heed it?
Try to look at the side that is not being seen, try to find what has to be done for users. Keep on trying to get the right solution and never stop. Try to find the right person to help you get the right answer.
Enjoy your work, love your work and be crazy about your work. Be good for the human spirit. Be good for the happiness of the human spirit. That is innovation in the age of Marketing 3.0.
Kyung Yang Park
Chief Vision Officer (CVO) and Founder, Moca, Harex InfoTech Inc.
Kyung Yang Park is the founder, president, and CVO of Harex InfoTech Inc. In December 5, 2012, he announced ‘MoCa payment 3.0 platform’ which is the world first user centric smart integrated payment service thru the world first reverse payment process with MoCa alliance of 60 industry major companies in Korea. Harex InfoTech Inc. is a company which major banks and all mobile operators in Korea invested as major shareholders, exerting its whole capacity to promote mobile commerce and payment in Korea with the help of them, whose ultimate goal is to connect the world with the ‘Payment 3.0 Platform’ network for the happiness of human spirit of all over the world. ‘Payment 3.0’, the world first reverse payment process commercialized in 2011 is the payment innovation in 61 years since the world first diner’s club card service of 1950 and the payment innovation with ‘compassion and IT Humanitarian’ for the happiness of human spirit.
Mr. Park is the member of Green Technology Innovator of Korea Research Council and a board of directors of KEPIA (Korea Electronic Payment Industry Association) and Korea Association of RFID/USN. He is a USC (University of Southern California) Ambassador, board of directors of USC Center for Telecommunications Management, a board of advisory of Center for Asia Pacific Leadership at USC and a founding advisory of NetKAL(Network of Korean American Leaders). He is the president of KABI(Korea American Business Institute), Idaho State Representative Office of Korea and the Consul General Office of Republic of FiJi.
Mr. Park was awarded the best intellectual patent prize in 2004 from the president of Republic of Korea and the Steel Tower Industrial Medal in 2012 for the contribution to smart integrated payment service. His newly named service, ‘MoCa Payment 3.0 Platform’ received the gold medal of Best Technology in the Innovation Project 2013 at Harvard University and Grand Innovation award at the Service Innovation 2013 in Korea.
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