PSP Angels VIKTORIA SOLTESZ Founder of PSP Angels
Finding the good in the bad – how online payments can help to rebuild the economy what COVID ruined 2020 made transformations we have never seen before. First of all, it completely transformed customer behaviour. We always knew that we are heading towards a more digitalised era, but this pandemic speeded up the process more then we could imagine. The online payments are now more in-demand than ever, which is opening great opportunities for new players and non-traditional providers. Also, in such a short time we saw so many industries falling – the travel, F&B and face-to-face operators are all collapsing. Never before stock market crashes pushing the economy into recession. It’s not only Jeff Bezos and the mask manufacturers who piled up their billions through their digital ecommerce empires. Since contactless or online payments are the only way to keep social distancing possible as opposed to cash
GAME CHANGERS Issue #28
and face-to-face purchases, several payment service providers are opening champagnes throughout 2020. Payments not only saw a never-before profit during the first quarter of 2020, the bullseye was hit again in Q2 when their biggest competition, Wirecard fell. Customers have stricter and stricter expectations when it comes to payments: everyone demands maximum access, flexibility and convenience. We all get more tech savvy too – we all have a payment app, online banking and heard about blockchain. It’s no longer only the young generation who uses electronic currencies such as Bitcoin to enjoy quicker, better and more reliable payment options. And as we know, with new demand, new supply is born. The banks are no longer cash handling offices at the end of the road, but modern and agile fintech companies. So, its not a surprise that the large technology and social media companies such as Amazon, Google and Facebook are also trying to break into the payments market and take a piece of this tasty, multibillion pie.
