BCBusiness.Ca July 2014 BCBusiness 47
among banks, mobile networks and gov-
ernments, is a comparative strength for
Canada, as are regulation and financial
services. The category in which we're
weakest is consumer readiness, which
"determines consumers' knowledge
of, comfort with and experience using
person-to-person, point-of-sale and
mobile-commerce payments." Canada
is technologically ready for mobile pay-
ments, but Canadians, it seems, aren't.
At least not yet. In B.C., 81 per cent of us
say we are concerned about the secu-
rity of transactions using a smartphone
app with an authorized connection to a
credit card.
Gokturk doesn't think we're techno-
phobes; he thinks we're just waiting for
devices and services that give us a big
enough incentive to outweigh our hes-
itation. "Canadians are actually very
technology-forward," he says, "and we
embrace new technology as long as it
shows value." Mobile
POS systems are
starting to show that value: apart from
some of the older denizens of West
Vancouver, most British Columbians
think there's value in the convenience
of paying for our lunch with a credit
card, rather than searching for an
ATM
and paying a hefty withdrawal fee to
get cash. Those of us who use the Star-
bucks mobile app to pay for coffee get
value out of the free drinks and food
we can earn through the integrated
My Starbucks Rewards program. Now,
Rogers, TD and PC Financial are hop-
ing that those of us with
NFC-enabled
smartphones will see value in leaving
our wallets at home altogether.
The technology is available to make
2014 the year British Columbians
adopt mobile payments en masse. The
remaining question is, How long will it
be before it shows enough value for us
to overcome our fears?
■
"Canadians are actually
very technology-forward,"
says Payfirma
CeO
Michael Gokturk, "and we
embrace new technology
as long as it shows value"
p040-047-MobilePayments_july.indd 47 2014-05-29 3:54 PM
