The Weird Week In Payments

“When the going gets tough, the weird go pro.”

Hunter S. Thompson

“Gonzo journalist” Hunter Thompson sure captured the week in payments with that sentiment. Sometimes, it’s an absolute banner week in payments news.  Other weeks are slow (but not lately, thanks to Apple Pay).  And, then there are the weeks that are just, well strange.

The second week of November in 2014 was one of those weeks.

Everyone in China decided to buy themselves a present (and about half of them used their phone to do it ) Alipay flirted with Apple and PayPal at the same time while touting its intention to go public, Amazon – once burned but never shy – released a new gadget designed to make shopping easier than even one click, bitcoin literally got under the skin of an enthusiast and a labor disputes at dock in California threatens to steal Christmas, Grinch Style.

So, what made the week that was, well weird, and who really “went pro?” As always PYMNTS has all the answers you didn’t even know you needed, right here so you can razzle dazzle this weekend

Eeeny, Meenie, Miney, Moe … So Who Will Alipay Choose …

… Apple Pay or PayPal?

In what may shape up to be the payments industry’s answer to The Bachelor, 800M account holding payments gorilla Alipay is looking for a new partner (or maybe two ) who can help them expand to retail locations outside of China where it is not currently accepted.  Reportedly talks with Apple are heading in a positive direction, but PayPal, as always, offers a very strong international footprint.

Alipay does have something strange in common with potential partner PayPal, as it seems that China’s premiere payments platform is also  heading toward an IPO.  Alibaba’s Executive Chairman Jack Ma said this week that Alipay“will definitely go public,” during an interview with an official state broadcaster. He further noted

“The main goal of listing isn’t for more money, but to let more people share in and be part of it.”  Like Alibaba that owns like 37 percent of it.

Speaking of Jack Ma…and Alibaba

… Why Is He  So Sad?

“This month I’m not very happy—I think too much pressure,” Ma told CNBC Tuesday.. “I try to make myself happy now, because I know that if I’m not happy my colleagues are not happy, and my shareholders are not happy, and my customers are not happy.  If I’m not happy, everybody’s jumping like monkeys. That’s not good.”

It is hard to imagine Jack Ma being sad about anything on Tuesday, (or everyone around him jumping around like a monkey for that matter) because of it. He’s China’s richest man. And, Alibaba blew away their previous record for Singles Day (November 11) sales of $5.75 billion in 2013 with a total haul of $9.3 billion for the holiday this past Tuesday. That’s a pretty healthy increase from a sales figure that outstripped the combined online sales of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S. last year by more than 3x.

Ma’s efforts at cheering himself up will likely be aided by the fact that in its first hour, Singles Day took in $2 billion (in its first 18 minutes it took in $1 billion).  That means sales of a little over 33 million dollars per minute–or the entire amount of money Colorado dispensary owners make per month now that they can sell cannabis legally.

Viewed a different way, Singles Day sales in the first hour was bringing in about $550K per second, meaning that every 2 seconds Alibaba was making the around same amount of money the terror group ISIS is making per day illegally selling oil.

Speaking of ISIS…

…Is It Possible That Terrorism Is Their Job, But Payments Their Passion?

In a move expected by no one, ISIS (The Islamic State In Syria And Iraq) ISIS has announced  that it will be minting its own new currency as a way to distinguish itself and legitimize its claims as a state encompassing northwest Iraq and northeast Syria.

The new currency is aimed at freeing citizens from from the “tyrannical financial system imposed on Muslims.”

Abu Bilal al-Homsi, the pseudonym of a Syrian activist who works as a liaison to ISIS, confirmed the veracity of the document announcing “terror coin’s” launch.

‘This is a strike against the Crusader coalition and it’s a victory that the Islamic State has an economy and is self-sufficient.’

Well, at least they had the good sense not to use bitcoin.

This move is somwhat ironic given that the telco-based mobile wallet ISIS (from AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile) recently changed its name to Softcard, mostly so it could distinguish itself from the al-Qaeda offshoot terrorist group with the same name.  Now the terrorist ISIS people have now decided to join the payments community, because Softcard didn’t have enough identity problems.

Speaking of SoftCard…

…Did You Remember To Get Them A Birthday Present?

Because today, November 15th is their second birthday.  Well, not exactly, since Softcard was announced as a concept in November of 2010, but who doesn’t lie about their age?  While our snarkier instincts considered the question “SoftCard…Wait They’re Still Around?” PYMNTS would never pick on anyone on their birthday, and besides, Softcard is still somewhat active.

Active because, Apple Pay is the mobile payments tide that lifts all NFC mobile payments boats, in mid-October Softcard announced that it’s being accepted as a payment method in McDonalds restaurants around the US. Payments with smartphones running Softcard apps can be done at the counter inside the restaurant or via the drive through. The deal with McDonalds is the largest deployment of NFC-based mobile commerce in a drive-through in the US., according to Softcard. (Wait, have they not heard about Apple Pay?)

Granted, Softcard has had to change its name due to associations with a murderous terrorist group and and has managed to sign-up fewer users in two years than Apple signed up in two days and, as MPD CEO Karen Webster noted, has just sort of suffered from an overall ignition problem,  but you have to admire their never-say-die-attitude.

Speaking of never say die attitudes, Amazon…

… releases the Echo.

And the big question here is whether it will be enough to make everyone forget about the Fire Phone?

In Amazon’s position,  with competitors as large and terrifying as other “A” players Alibaba and Apple stalking at every turn, perhaps there’s something to be said about the mentality, go big or go home (certainly go big and go phone hasn’t worked yet).

Amazon announced its latest effort to break into the gadget market with Echo, an interactive speaker that lets people use the power of the Web to shop with just their voice.

The device was quietly unveiled on Amazon’s website last Friday (Nov. 6). While the retailer touts its new product as a device to stream music, search the Internet and organize schedules, Echo allows Amazon to place microphones in the home where consumers will think of things you want to buy – the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room – things which Amazon can then easily fulfill.

Echo users need merely to stand in a room, initiate the device by saying its wake word, “Alexa,” and say a variety of commands: “Add gelato to my shopping list,” for example. The Wi-Fi- and Bluetooth-enabled gadget automatically updates itself through the cloud, Amazon says, and pairs with the free Amazon Echo App to manage the commands given to Echo when users are away from home.

Interesting, Amazon said little about Echo’s true purpose: get users to shop more on Amazon.com.

Still you have to admire their persistence, especially when lack of success motivates one to give up.

Speaking of giving-up, there’s Google …

Who must have wondered .. “If Other Companies Are Doing It Better, Why Should We Even Bother To Try?”

“When we first launched Google Wallet for digital goods, we wanted to make it simple for users and merchants to buy and sell online. The industry has matured a lot since then, providing a number of alternative payment solutions to choose from. As we continue to evolve and improve our merchant tools to meet new market challenges in the payments space, we are writing to let you know we will be retiring the Google Wallet for digital goods API on March 2, 2015,” notes Google.

So Google is out of the in-app purchases business, apparently deciding that quitting while they are still way behind is probably the best way to go.  What PYMNTS’ CEO once called “The Incredible Shrinking Google Wallet,” has shrunk again They have officially pulled out of the in-app business—although it will continue to handle such purchases until March 2, 2015—and has gone out of its way to neither offer a replacement service nor to steer any business to any existing service. (Hear that Apple Pay and PayPal?)

But Google is by no means asking merchants to stick with the service through March 2. It is strongly suggesting that merchants leave as soon as possible, while also saying that it won’t go out of its way to give shoppers a smooth exit.

“Google Wallet buyers will not be proactively notified. Keep in mind that if you do not remove your integration before March 2, 2015, your buyers will get 404 errors upon checking out with Google Wallet for digital goods API,” Google said. “To preserve your user experience, we highly recommend removing your integration and migrating to another payment processing solution as soon as possible.”

Speaking of a loss of interest in playing well with others, there’s The Port Of Long Beach…

… presents the puzzle:  can one port, in one state really ruin Christmas for everyone?

As of right now you may not think much about the Port of Long Beach other than it is in a part of the country with great weather, but come Christmas morning, if your new iPad (or worse, your kid’s PlayStation) is sitting there trapped in a container, you’ll likely mentally refer to them with less than festive language.

Hundreds of shipping containers are piling up at the Los Angeles/Long Beach Port complex, and thanks to equipment shortages and labor disputes, the products inside are not likely to make it out in time for the holiday shopping season.

While it’s painfully clear to retailers that the shipments may not see the inside of their stores for the launch of the 2014 holiday shopping season, exactly how this nightmare before Christmas came to be is a bit more complicated.

Reports say a shortage of transportation equipment needed to unload the containers is slowing the process down. But dock management claims workers are deliberately slowing operations to gain leverage in contract negotiations.

The dispute, regardless of cause, has retailers are scrambling. Stores reportedly anticipated bumps from contract renewal talks and upped their delivery orders over the summer. And since the backup began, Walmart reportedly diverted 300 shipping containers filled with products to the northern port of Oakland to avoid the backup.

Speaking of…okay this next one has no rational question to go with it other than …

“Why?”

There is such a thing as loving payments too much.

A bitcoin entrepreneur and ‘biohacking’ enthusiast Martijn Wismeijer, also known as ‘Mr Bitcoin’, has found an unlikely place to store digital currency – under his skin.

The dedicated enthusiast had two NFC (near-field communication) chips injected into the back of his hands during a biohacking event organised by Permanent Beta last week.

Maybe a little  lunacy is good luck though. Bitcoin prices increased this week a smidge as innovators absorbed a little bitcoin energy with the announcements of new, easy to use trading exchanges. And the potential to have the latest in biometric wallet technology that is always on.

We wish we were making this stuff up.