There are a few factors that determine the success or failure of new payment solutions. Otto Group launched their Yapital project in 2011 and was one of the frontrunners to explore the mobile payment industry. However, being among the first to venture into a new market is not always a guarantee for success.
Yapital offered some interesting features, such as using QR codes to let people make instore and online payments, similar to how Bitcoin works. Additionally, Yapital users could pay bills with their mobile phones, which sounded like a great concept at the time of launch. Unfortunately, neither of these features proved to be much of a success, despite the headstart.
Otto Group identified the culprit of Yapital’s failure in the form of a very competitive market – especially over the past 24 months- and disappointing consumer take up. Mobile payment solutions will stand or fall depending on how many consumers actively use the application, and Yapital’s market share has always been fairly low.
But there was a positive side to Yapital too, as German retailers seemed keen on embracing the mobile payment solution. Come January 31, 2015, Yapital will be officially shut down as a mobile payment application, but it will stay active as an e-money institution for the b2b market.
“At the moment it is simply impossible to forecast business performance in this segment accurately – and above all, the development of the number of end-consumers. While we were already talking about the mobile-payment breakthrough three years ago, today studies indicate there are currently only 200,000 users in Germany.” – Yapital Executive Director Marc Berg commented.
Interchange regulations are making it difficult for any mobile payment solution to gain ground in Germany and beyond. This causes margins to fall for companies, and in the case of Yapital, it even lead to a reduction in workforce. Despite best efforts by the team, things just didn’t work out they way they could have.
Bitcoin Is A Favorable Solution
As these “hyped” mobile payment solutions are faced with the harsh reality ofn ot being as popular as everyone assumed, the weed will be culled from the chaff in the long run. Despite all of these changes and competitive strategies, Bitcoin trucks on, unencumbered by what companies are trying to achieve in the mobile payment space.
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