9 Unlikely Origins of Modern Mobile Wallets

April 22, 2016 8:15 AM

Most modern mobile wallets didn't start out in their current form. Some didn't even start out as mobile apps.

Chase Pay

Chase Pay has its roots in ChaseNet, a closed-loop payment system Chase began building in partnership with Visa in 2013. Since Chase owns both the cardholder and merchant relationships, it can reduce risk and cut fees.

A worker demonstrates fingerprint payment security on the Samsung Electronics Co. stand at the Mobile World Congress in this arranged photograph Barcelona, Spain, on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. Mobile World Congress, an annual phone-industry event organized by GSMA Ltd., runs from Feb. 22 to Feb. 25. Photographer: Pau Barrena/Bloomberg

Pau Barrena/Bloomberg

Samsung Pay

What Samsung calls Magnetic Secure Transmission used to be called LoopPay. The contactless magstripe payment system originally required a dongle before Samsung bought the technology's developer and built its product directly into Samsung handsets.

An attendee displays the Google Inc. Android Pay icon on a mobile device for a photograph during the Google I/O Annual Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, May 28, 2015. Google Inc. unveiled payment services, security upgrades and access to HBO movies and shows for its popular Android software, seeking to push back against growing competition from rivals such as Apple Inc. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Android Pay

Android Pay benefits from more than its roots in Google Wallet. It also benefits from the failure of Softcard, a rival wallet built by the major U.S. telcos. When Softcard shut down, the carriers agreed to give Google an advantage they previously kept for themselves: Pre-installing the app on consumer handsets.

PayPal Inc.'s mobile payment application is launched on an Apple Inc. iPhone in this arranged photograph during a promotional event at Nestle SA's Cafe Nescafe coffee shop in the Harajuku district of Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, Nov. 18, 2013. Japan, where majority of retail purchases are made in cash, is attracting US mobile-payment companies such as Paypal and Square. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

PayPal

Long before the PayPal app and Venmo, PayPal devised a system for making purchases and donations via text message. This system made the most of the technology available at the time, but it was the 2008 introduction of Apple's App Store that gave PayPal the boost it needed to attract a dedicated mobile audience.

Starbucks

The Starbucks app wasn't always a mobile payments juggernaut. When Starbucks introduced payment functionality in 1999, it did so through a separate Starbucks Card app developed as a companion to its gift card. Today, the payment functionality has been absorbed into the company's primary app and is perhaps the app's most well-known feature.

Wolfe, Daniel

LifeLock

The current LifeLock app ditches wallet functionality, but the ID fraud protection company took its wallet through several iterations before deciding to shut it down. LifeLock Wallet started as Lemon, a card-storage app LifeLock purchased in late 2013 for $42.6 million. After rebranding the app, LifeLock quickly took it off the market due to security concerns. Though the app came back, LifeLock plans to shut down its wallet servers on May 16, 2016.

LevelUp

The LevelUp wallet is a variant of a mobile game called SCVNGR, which rewarded consumers for checking into merchant locations. This element of gamification became a core feature of the LevelUp app.

Push for Pizza

Push for Pizza is a one-trick wallet. It lets users order pizza delivery from a predetermined restaurant with stored payment credentials. But it didn't appear out of nowhere it was built on an Application Program Interface (API) from Ordr.in, a now-defunct food ordering platform.

Circle

The social mobile money service Circle started out as a bitcoin wallet. But as bitcoin lost its shine, Circle decided to bury that functionality and rebrand itself as a cross-border mobile wallet that just happens to use bitcoin as part of its currency conversion process.