"Switzerland is too small for more than one mobile payment provider"

Tobias Wirth is Head Digital Products at the Aduno Group and a board member of the Swiss Mobile Association (smama).MK How do you assess the current situation in mobile payment on the Swiss market?TOBIAS WIRTH In the current transformation phase of payment transactions, various new and established providers are trying to introduce mPayment solutions. There are primarily two camps. The local providers and the international providers. The whole thing is being driven by advancing digitalization due to the widespread use of smartphones and wearable devices.MK The market is highly competitive. Which solutions will prevail in the end?WIRTH My assessment is that one local provider and two international providers will establish themselves in Switzerland. Switzerland is too small for more than one local provider. Twint and Paymit must join forces if they want to stand a chance as local providers against the large international providers.MK Which international providers have the best opportunities in Switzerland?WIRTH As far as international providers are concerned, the decision will not be made in Switzerland, but in the major markets such as China and the USA. The global providers that prevail internationally will then also prevail in Switzerland.MK Can Swiss solutions even hold their own against international competition?WIRTH The decisive success factor, the all-important user experience, lies with international providers such as Apple and Samsung. They can seamlessly integrate an mPayment solution into "their" devices. After all, they are also the manufacturers of the hardware and some of the software. Third-party providers such as Twint and Paymit do not have these options. They can only develop an app that runs on these devices. Nothing more. This is also the reason why Twint, for example, has to rely on Bluetooth rather than the much more widespread NFC standard, as Apple does not currently allow third parties to use this technology in their devices.Interview: Simon Wolanin