Mobile Payment Applications
Innovations in technology ease the process of conducting business at the current time. In the past, people used to visit stores in search of a specific commodity. However, technology created a platform where the client links up with the service provider on the internet. Developments led to the invention of credit cards to pay for the services, but the latest use of mobile money transfer is payment of services sums up the important innovations in business.
Currently, people can pay for goods and services from the comfort of their homes and have the goods delivered. The invention plays an important part in developing the cashless system of carrying money. Such systems include; Apple Pay, Google Wallet, Venmo among others. Not only is the service used in buying goods, but the service is also applicable in payment of bills from the comfort of the office of home. The primary function of this paper is to consider the impacts of mobile money applications in the current world.
Carrying of cash has always presented a security risk for the business people. With the increased cases of theft, people found it challenging to travel around with cash especially when buying something expensive. Mobile money transfer offers security for the money (Grant, 2011, p. 515). People posing a security threat are not in a position to tell the amount of money a person has since the carrying of money is in the mobile phones.
Mobile transfer applications make it easy to transfer money from one person to another without many problems. Business is now easier to transact where the concerned parties exchange money without being in the same physical locality. The Internet presents an opportunity for the client to see the products and the mobile money presents a channel for the client to pay for the services.
Mobile money applications enable the growth of businesses with increased customers. Many people hate to carry cash over the security threats presented. The only available option was the use of credit cards. Most businesses, especially the smaller ones, did not have the necessary technology to transact using the credit cards hindering them from transacting with a bigger clientele.
Mobile money is easily available to the smaller business persons, and the use ensures the growth of the small businesses. People are now in a position to shop at whichever locality due to the high number of people practicing the new mode of doing business. With increased customer, the mobile transfer applications are helping the people to grow their businesses and increase their profitability (Oxford Business Group, 2013, p. 213).
The applications reduce the time taken by a client in shopping. The queues in the payment section have been big due to the slow payment process. However, with technology, each person gets to pay independently and check out of the store at their convenience. In the financial institutions, especially at the end of the month, the lines were huge with people lining up to withdraw their money (Jun, 2014, p. 163). The queues wasted a lot of time since many people lined up to withdraw money.
With the mobile money applications, the financial institutions link up with their customers enabling them to withdraw their money from any locality. The practice saves time and energy making it easier to multitask. People do not have to travel to the locations of the institutions to withdraw money but rather uses the applications. Mobile money saves money for the users. The charges offered in using the services are smaller compared to the charges incurred for other services such as the use of credit cards.
Apart from the use of credit cards, the usage of cash involved much expenditure on the sides. For example, people had to travel to financial institutions to withdraw money. Travelling was expensive especially with longer distances. The financial institutions also charge withdrawal charges to the customers. Such expenses reduce the use of mobile money applications that charge a smaller amount of money. Development of the service leads to the creation of job opportunities (Zavoralet al., 2010, p. 178). Many of the people involved in the creation of the applications are young people.
The applications offer them the opportunity to earn a living and make good use of their knowledge. The simplicity of the process ensures the applications are accessible to many people. The level of literacy differs from one person to another, but the simplicity of the application enables the whole population to be in a position to use the service. Mobile money changed not only the process of conducting business but also the profitability of the business people using the service.
Every single thing with a positive aspect harbors a negative side of it. Firstly, some of the applications do not offer the opportunity to reverse a transaction. If a transaction occurs to the wrong recipient, the applications take long to reverse the transaction. As much as this is a safety procedure to avoid the clients reversing the transaction after getting the goods, the practice may inconvenience the client in a huge manner.
In case the sent amount of money was the only amount in the possession of the client, the client ends up suffering by waiting for the few days to regain access to the sent amount of money. The applications call for a high level of attention during transactions to avoid mistakes that might lead to loss of money.
The hackers of communication systems are also on the rise. The mobile payment applications are giving them the opportunity to steal from an online platform. When a hacker can hack into a system controlling the mobile payment applications, it is possible for the clients to lose all the funds in their possession.
The hacking crime leads to questioning of the security of the funds stored in the phones for use in payment of services (Zdziarski, 2012, p. 11). The unscrupulous business people may also use the payment method to embezzle funds from the customers. Some of the customers do not get the chance to view the invoice but only pay the amount said by the business person. Such practices may lead to loss of money on the side of the client.
Mobile payment applications simplify the process of shopping and that of conducting business. The applications increase the security of the money and ease the time taken in doing shopping. The adoption of the practice has enabled the growth of business with the unlimited access to people to mobile phones and the applications.
Many young people have access to jobs through the applications. On the downside, hacking of the applications may lead to loss of funds by the clients causing huge losses of high amounts of funds. However, the benefits of the applications outweigh the negative attributes and the high turnout in the use of the applications explain the benefits associated with the applications. On the overall measure of the effects of the applications, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
References
Grant, K. (2011). Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Information Management and Evaluation Ryerson University, Toronto Canada, 27-28 April 2011. Reading: Academic Pub.
Jun. (2014). Managing digital enterprise : ten essential topics. Paris: Atlantis Press.
Oxford Business Group. (2013). Report : oman 2013. S.l: Oxford Business Group.
Zavoral, F., Yaghob, J., Pichappan, P. & Qawasmeh, E. (2010). Networked Digital Technologies Second International Conference, NDT 2010, Prague, Czech Republic, July 7-9, 2010. Proceedings, Part I. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
Zdziarski, J. (2012). Hacking and securing iOS applications. Sebastopol: O’Reilly Media.