Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 6 September 2018
Square introduce new ways to take payments on Apple Devices and Chromebook
We want you to be able to run your business however you want — and never miss a sale. Whether you take payments via Square Stand in a restaurant, with a phone and reader in a retail pop-up, or with a computer in a medical office, we want to make sure our tools work seamlessly in your environment.
So we’re releasing two new ways to help you run your business with your Apple products and on your Chromebook.
Take payments via swipe from your computer
For some businesses — particularly those in office settings that run their businesses on a computer — using a phone or a stand-alone reader might not be the best fit.
Now you can take payments in person from your Apple computer or Chromebook using Square Reader for magstripe. It’s a quick way to integrate payments into your existing workflow by turning your computer into a checkout station with Virtual Terminal.
You can take payments on an Apple computer running Google Chrome or Apple Safari browsers, or on a Chromebook running a Google Chrome browser. Setup takes just a few minutes. If you already have Square Reader for magstripe, plug the reader into your computer’s audio jack, open up Virtual Terminal, follow the onscreen prompts, and start swiping cards to take payments from your computer right away.
Tinkoff Bank adds movie ticket bookings to mobile app
Tinkoff Bank continues to expand its ecosystem of lifestyle services by adding movie ticket bookings to its mobile app.
Starting today, the service is available to iOS users, with the Android version to follow soon.
With more than 300 participating movie theaters in 90 cities across Russia, tickets are now just a couple of clicks away. The new feature is available to the Bank’s customers in the Entertainment section of the Payments menu.
Showtimes can be searched by the name of the movie or the movie theatre. The app also features a What’s On guide, ratings and trailers of new releases, as well as those coming soon.
To buy a ticket, one just needs to choose the movie, the showtime and seats.
“We are happy to offer our customers movie ticket bookings, launched in partnership with the Kinokhod booking service, and available directly via Tinkoff’s mobile app. Movie ticket purchases enabled via the mobile app complement our restaurant booking service and are a natural extension of Tinkoff’s ecosystem, reinforcing our position as a major lifestyle banking player. In the short run, we are going to make even more exciting features available to customers, as part of our banking product proposition,” said Maxim Yevdokimov, Chief Digital CX Officer at Tinkoff Bank.
Alipay Seeks Japanese Partners to Strengthen Cashless Experience across the Country for Tourists before 2020
Alipay, a mobile and online payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group, announced that it will collaborate with a wider range of local Japanese partners to build a cashless environment for tourists coming to Japan, in particular for the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020.
This will allow the large number of visitors coming from China to enjoy easy payment methods that they are familiar with and provide business opportunities for local merchants in Japan. In addition, efforts will continue to extend Alipay coverage throughout Japan as one of the most popular tourist destinations for travelers from China and other Asian countries.
“Alipay is dedicated to enhancing user experience and creating value for small and micro businesses through technology. The Tokyo Olympics and the hike in visitors that this will bring is a good target for us, to ensure that the Alipay platform serves as a bridge between inbound visitors and local merchants here in Japan. It is also important that we are collaborating with partners not only in the metropolitan areas and big cities, but also in smaller cities with popular tourist attractions. We look forward to working with a wide range of Japanese partners to achieve this ambition, and, in doing so, contribute to driving the local economy in areas across Japan,” said Eric Jing, Executive Chairman and CEO of Ant Financial.
