Apple's Tap to Pay arrives in the UK, or the Beginning of the End of Physical Payment Terminals 📲; Ripple’s XRP surges 96% after a partial win in SEC lawsuit 🤯; Is Revolut a Super App now? 🤔

FinTech is Eating the World, 14 July

Hey Everyone,

TGIF! We’re finishing off an intense week with a big bang 💥 Today we’re looking at Apple's Tap to Pay arriving in the UK, which marks the beginning of the end of physical POS (why it’s big & how it’s part of Apple’s Super App play), Ripple’s XRP surging to the moon after a partial win in SEC lawsuit (what does it really mean + how Ripple is dominating in enterprise), and question whether Revolut is a Super App now after launching Revolut Experiences (a closer look at this + what everyone is missing here). Let’s jump straight into the hot stuff 🌶

Apple's Tap to Pay arrives in the UK, or the Beginning of the End of Physical Payment Terminals 📲

The launch 🚀 Apple AAPL 0.00%↑ has just announced that Tap to Pay on iPhone has now rolled out to the UK🇬🇧, enabling small businesses to accept Apple Pay and contactless card payments using nothing more than their iPhone. It follows earlier international expansion to Taiwan🇹🇼 and Australia🇦🇺.

British FinTech star Revolut and banking giant NatWest are the first ones to introduce the technology across the United Kingdom.

More on this 👉 The feature, which allows iPhone owners to accept payment without a separate card reader, was first announced in February of last year, with a gradual rollout in the US through a growing range of payment processors.

It allows any modern iPhone to act as a payment terminal by utilizing the NFC chip. Here’s a brief flow of Apple Tap to Pay, or how softPOS works in general:

In short, Tap to Pay on iPhone enables users - both consumers and merchants - to accept in-person contactless payments with just a tap of their payment cards or mobile wallet, with no need for additional terminals or hardware.

✈️ THE TAKEAWAY

The shift 📲 Let us start off with some history first. One of the first companies to produce dedicated payment terminals aka POS devices was Verifone. It started in 1981 in Hawaii as a small electronic company. In 1983 they introduced the ZON terminal series, which would become the standard for modern payment terminals. Eventually, POSes became a lucrative business for banks allowing them to lock in large retailers that would process billions every month. The little guys, the SMEs, mom & pop shops, as usual, were left behind or had to pay huge fees to enable in-store payments. FinTech has challenged that with companies like Square SQ 0.00%↑, SumUp, or iZettle (now PayPal PYPL 0.00%↑) that in essence hacked the headphone jack of the phone making in-store commerce much easier and accessible. Leveraging iPhone’s Tap to Pay, today has never been easier for any online platform to accept in-person payments. In fact, for proximity payments, there is probably no better experience (at scale) than Apple’s Tap and Pay. Hence, not only it’s a game-changer for small businesses but also it marks the beginning of the end of physical POS. At the same time, it opens up even more opportunities for Apple to dominate the world of finance and ultimately become the first Super App of the West.

ICYMI: A glimpse into Apple’s plan to dominate the POS payments 📲

Apple might become the First Super App of the West 🍎 [+4 more reads]