Gyft Co-Founder: Credit Card Spending Now Outpacing Bitcoin

[OmegaStarScream]

When digital card platform Gyft first integrated bitcoin payments, they accounted for 90% of the company's sales, with PayPal and credit cards making up the remaining 10%, but this has all changed, according to the firm's co-founder and CEO Vinny Lingham.

The California-based company, acquired by First Data in 2014, integrated bitcoin payments in 2013 and initially saw a trend for this payment method, but this has since reversed – PayPal and credit card purchases now account for 90% of sales. Regardless, Lingham continues to be fascinated by bitcoin.

In fact, it's fair to say his personal fascination with the digital currency led to Gyft offering it as a payment option in the first place.

Article : http://www.coindesk.com/gyft-co-founder-bitcoin-payments-have-decreased-by-80/


So what do you guys think was the reason behind this ? I mean we all know gyft and how used it is but I didn't expect this to be honest , I thought most of the users there are bitcoiners

[unamis76]

Maybe people flocking away because of the recent scamming on gift cards for Bitcoin? Can't really see other reason (although this isn't a very good one)

[marky89]

I think a big segment of their target audience are people who a) were going to shop at those places anyway and b) get cash back incentives via credit cards on top of Gyft points.

I use bitcoin on Gyft regularly, but if I were particularly concerned about saving a few more % on every purchase, it's more sensible to use my cash-back credit cards.

[rubberbandloser]

I agree with Marky89.  Gyft is a great idea that is just reaching a larger audience now.  People buy gift cards all the time for each other,  Why not make some cash back?  This is something that can catch on with everybody,  Not just for bitcoin users looking for an easy way to cash out.

[ashour]

Gyft was menat to be for bitcoin, but as all professional companies they realized that bitcoin still has too little traction and decided to accept other methods like CC and Google wallet, once the masses adopt bitcoin the Gyft user will start again to use bitcoin as preferable payment method.

[jacktheking]

I never knew that 90% of the sale from Gyft is from Bitcoin when they integrated in the 2013. I purchased a few Amazon Giftcard and one Ebay from them this year. I do hope to see the number rise to 90% again by 2020. This will attract more company to accept Bitcoin as a payment method.

[Elwar]

Perhaps this is a good business model.

Start with something innovative and accept bitcoins and credit cards.

The early adopter types such as Bitcoin users are willing to try it out and get it off the ground. Then as your business grows the larger market of credit card users will get wind of it and start using your service as well.

[pawel7777]

Perhaps this is a good business model.

Start with something innovative and accept bitcoins and credit cards.

The early adopter types such as Bitcoin users are willing to try it out and get it off the ground. Then as your business grows the larger market of credit card users will get wind of it and start using your service as well.

This.

But from the article we don't really know whether net purchases in BTC actually decreased (and by how much). All we know that proportion of BTC/cc sales has reversed.

Other factor: they started accepting bitcoins in 2013, when merchant adoption was rather poor, so more bitcoiners back then would use Gyft simply because they didn't have too many other options.

[medUSA]

When digital card platform Gyft first integrated bitcoin payments, they accounted for 90% of the company's sales, with PayPal and credit cards making up the remaining 10%
<snip>
PayPal and credit card purchases now account for 90% of sales.

We can't quantify the actual revenue from bitcoin from the above figures in percentages. Users using bitcoin to pay for gift cards may not have fallen by that much. If Gyft's revenue rose 10x from 2013 to 2015, payment by bitcoin could have actually increased by 10% too:

|_Year_|	_Revenue_|	_CreditCard_|	_Bitcoin_|
2013	100	10	90
2015	1000	900	100

These are not real figures. I am saying bitcoin usage may not have dropped, it could actually have risen, the massive drop in percentage came from explosion of Credit Card and PayPal payments.