The future of mobile payments in 2022 and beyond

By Puja Sharma

Mobile phones and hardware makers are partnering with payment providers and telecom companies to offer consumers and small companies a unique credit product at a low upfront cost that so many companies are eager to provide: asset financing.

According to research by the GSM Association, there are obvious differences between mobile operators and FinTech companies: different industries, different sizes, different cultures. But there are strong reasons why they should join forces to bring secure and innovative solutions to market at scale since they are so different – or should we say complementary?

FinTechs can innovate rapidly and provide flexibility, while operators can market and distribute their solutions at scale as well as offer specific enablers to ease deployment. Smartphones operators already partner with small, innovative companies to offer differentiated services to their customers, and not just in the area of finance.

The FinTech market size will reach $124.3b by the end of 2025 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.84%. The worldwide smartphone shipment instead is expected to reach $1.53 billion units by 2025, resulting in a CAGR of 3.6%.

Corporate partnerships and acquisitions have been common in emerging markets over the past two to three years, as major companies seek to dominate cross-border payments and digital payments. Several large corporate groups in Africa have announced large-scale alliances, acutely aware of the need to combine forces and market bulk to stay ahead of disrupting FinTechs and neobanks.

More than 1.3 billion people in Africa, the least technologically advanced continent, have access to the Internet and 80% have a mobile phone. M-Pesa, a telecommunications company based in Kenya, has benefited from these factors.

The usual associations between telecoms, banks, payment companies, and software companies are not the only types of business partnerships that are emerging: mobile phones and hardware makers are partnering with payment providers and telecom companies to offer consumers and small companies a unique credit product – asset financing – at a low upfront cost that so many companies are eager to provide.

Huawei and Curve’s partnership

An example of this successful strategy involves  HUAWEI P50 Series,  the latest smartphones to get NFC mobile payments in the United Kingdom. NFC contactless payment is now widely available on Huawei smartphones, including the Huawei P50 Series. Recently, Huawei announced its partnership with Curve, the financial super app which combining all of the debit, credit, and loyalty cards into one, easy-to-use smart card , to launch Curve Pay so Huawei customers can pay by phone through one digital wallet.

Huawei users will have one digital wallet for all their cards, with access to cashback options from hundreds of popular brands and a 360˚ view of all spending with useful insights, budget, and control settings, all available in numerous currencies. In addition to these features, Huawei customers will also be able to access fair exchange rates with no hidden fees, allowing them to travel with confidence when it comes to their money.

Unlike other mobile wallets, should Huawei users decide they have paid via the wrong card, they can move past payments from one account to another through Curve’s ‘Go Back In Time’ feature. Plus, the Curve app features an ‘anti-embarrassment’ mode, which will automatically switch cards if the selected card is declined.

The move by Curve and Huawei is part of the companies’ core goal of helping more people to pay by phone in 2022 and beyond. With Curve Pay is the final piece of the puzzle for developing the Huawei Mobile ecosystem of apps.

All Huawei users in Europe can now download Curve on the AppGallery and enter the world of NFC-enabled contactless mobile phone payments. As a welcome offer, Curve and Huawei will be offering new users 1% cashback on almost any payment for 30 days across Europe and 5% cashback from all purchases on Huawei’s online stores in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and the UK.

Shachar Bialick, Founder and CEO of Curve, said: “We’re on a mission to simplify people’s financial lives, and launching Curve Pay for Huawei customers allows us to help even more people, across Europe, do just that. Everybody should be able to access smart payment solutions and we’re proud to support more people with contactless payments, rewards, and ultimately, simplicity and convenience.”

The release of the Huawei P50 series will be the latest smartphone to benefit from Curve Pay, the feature that uses NFC technology to enable contactless smartphone payments. In addition to the P50 series, Curve Pay will also work with the recently launched Nova 9, and other HMS Smartphones across Europe.

“Huawei users can now pay by phone, it’s as simple as that. We now have a proven, easy to use and highly functional mobile payment solution, which is bank and card agnostic, making it ideal for our consumers, dispersed in so many different countries in Europe,” said Jervis Su, Vice President of Mobile Services, Huawei Consumer Business Group. “This is particularly great news for HUAWEI P50 Series and Nova 9 Series users who can access the app now and immediately start making use of their smartphone to make NFC-enabled contactless payments”.