15 of Visa's Hits and Misses in Digital Payments

Published July 18, 2014 2:50 PM

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Updated October 20, 2016 10:39 AM

1 Min Read

A Visa credit card sign is displayed in a store window in Des Plaines, Illinois, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2008. Visa Inc., the worlds largest electronic payments network, will report earnings on Feb. 4. Photographer: Tim Boyle/Bloomberg News

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The newly rebranded Visa Checkout is the latest of the card network's attempts to create a more streamlined, digital payment process that moves past the plastic card. Visa and Visa Europe have embarked on many projects around the globe in recent years, targeting e-commerce, mobile payments, P2P and other use cases. (Image: Bloomberg News)

Rigthcliq

Rightcliq, launched in 2010, was more of a shopping portal than a digital wallet. Visa described the short-lived service as embodying what e-commerce would look like if it was rebuilt from the ground up. But it was perhaps too ambitious, and was shut down shortly before the launch of the more streamlined V.me wallet. (Image: ShutterStock)

Wolfe, Daniel

Payclick

Payclick launched in Australia at the same time as Rightcliq launched in the U.S. An unrelated and independently developed product, Payclick was designed as more of a prepaid card account with parental controls.

V.me

V.me debuted in 2011 on the heels of Righcliq's demise and formally launched a year later. The digital wallet, a predecessor to the new Visa Checkout, allowed consumers to make e-commerce payments with just a username and password, and could draw funds from Visa and non-Visa cards.

A Push Behind P2P

Visa's card-to-card transfer service launched internationally in 2002 and came to the U.S. in 2009. Visa then boosted its P2P capabilities through separate deals with Fiserv and CashEdge in March 2011 (Fiserv bought CashEdge later that year). (Image: ShutterStock)

VisaDirect

This service launched in 2004 to respond to new regulations in the European Union that prohibit banks from charging more for cross-border money transfers within the E.U. than they do for domestic transfers. The rules presented an opportunity for Visa to provide banks with an efficient transfer service. (Image: ShutterStock)

A pedestrian walks past a Citibank branch in the ground floor of Citigroup Inc. headquarters in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. Citigroup, the third-largest U.S. lender by assets, now earns more than half of its profit from emerging markets, Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said last month. Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg

Jin Lee/Bloomberg

Now You c2it, Now You Don't

Citigroup's 2003 decision to shut Visa out as a funding source for its c2it person-to-person payment system was not a huge setback for Visa. C2it did not represent a significant amount of Visa volume (Citi is a MasterCard issuer), and the struggling P2P payment system shut down a few months later. (Image: Bloomberg News)

Online shopping

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Anti-Account Numbers

Visa is working with MasterCard and American Express on a framework to replace card account numbers with a secure "token" for online and mobile payments. The initiative, announced last year, aims to make digital payments simpler for consumers and more secure for issuers and merchants. (Image: ThinkStock)

Sizing Up Security

Visa is also working to improve the security of online transactions through efforts such as its involvement with the FIDO (Fast Identity Online) Alliance. Visa Inc. joined FIDO's board of directors in May, with Visa Europe joining as a sponsor member. Visa is also a longtime proponent of the 3D Secure online authentication system, which it calls Verified by Visa. (Image: ShutterStock)

Visa Inc. credit and debit cards are arranged for a photograph in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014. Visa Inc. is expected to release earnings data on Jan. 30. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

A Host of Mobile Payment Projects

Visa is working with several issuers to test mobile wallets that use Host Card Emulation technology, which simulates a Near Field Communication payment without requiring access to the phone's secure element. (Image: Bloomberg News)

A Cluster of Carrier Partnerships

Visa and Visa Europe cards are key components of numerous telco payment initiatives around the world. T-Mobile, Boost, Orange, Vodafone and Telecom Italia Mobile all offer Visa payment accounts. Visa issuers JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are also involved in the U.S. telcos' Isis mobile wallet.

An employee displays the interface for the Visa payWave contactless payment system using a Samsung Galaxy SIII smartphone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. The Mobile World Congress, where 1,500 exhibitors converge to discuss the future of wireless communication, is a global showcase for the mobile technology industry and runs from Feb. 25 through Feb. 28. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Mobile Memories

Visa worked with DeviceFidelity Inc. in 2010 to test a process of issuing payment-capable memory cards to Bank of America customers. These memory cards would go into consumers' phones, enabling contactless payments. But DeviceFidelity determined that its focus on hardware-based payments limited its growth, and it has since placed more emphasis on software. (Image: Bloomberg News)

Working with Wearables

Visa issuers in Europe have begun offering payment-capable wristbands that operate just like contactless cards. CaixaBank and Barclays began offering Visa wristbands this month. The Barclays product evolves from its PayTag stickers, which adhere to phones to enable them to make contactless payments. It has issued more than 1 million PayTags since 2012. (Image: CaixaBank)

A sign indicating the acceptance of Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. credit cards via the Square Inc. service is displayed at Suika vegetable store as owner Fumiko Yajima arranges produce in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013. Consumers in Japan paid cash for about 56 percent of their 279 trillion yen of purchases last fiscal year, while 12 percent was paid with plastic, Tokyo-based card company Credit Saison Co. estimates. Photographer: Yuriko Nakao/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Fumiko Yajima

Yuriko Nakao/Bloomberg

Supporting Square

Visa invested an undisclosed sum in mobile payments company Square in 2011. Square remains a big name in mobile card acceptance, but the vendor shut down its digital wallet this year, replacing it with an order-ahead app. (Image: Bloomberg News)

US dollar bill and binary code (Digital Composite)

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Supporting DocuSign

Visa invested in DocuSign this month to fuel efforts to remove paper from payment processes worldwide. "Our enemy is paper ... We have a similarity with Visa. Their enemy is cash," DocuSign CFO Mike Dinsdale says. (Image: ThinkStock)

Visa Checkout

Visa's newly announced checkout system drops the "wallet" metaphor to place issuer brands on the checkout button itself. After years of experience in the market, Visa executives have finally declared: "We are not in the wallet business." The new product streamlines implementation, authentication and payments.