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Anna Kuzmina

Anna Kuzmina Expert at Fintech

WeChat Pay in Russia

Previously, I wrote a couple of articles on Alipay and WeChat Pay, their history and strategy, their progress on the Russian ground. Not only them, Alibaba and Tencent, overall. Since then, things were constantly moving forward. FT Confidential Research, 2018 First of all, WeChat Pay continued skyrocketing, obviously getting to Alipay popularit

/payments Fintech

Anna Kuzmina

Anna Kuzmina Expert at Fintech

11.11, or Double Eleven, or Global Shopping Festival: view from the payments side

It seems there are not so many online shoppers nowadays that are completely unaware of the havoc that November 11 wreaks. And yet I personally know the guy who invented Global Shopping Festival just a while ago, at least the English brand of which is known as the Chinese Singles Day. It used to be a huge sale on the Alibaba e-commerce websites at ...

/payments Financial Risk Management

Anna Kuzmina

Anna Kuzmina Expert at Fintech

Polish love their banks

from Warsaw Warsaw is grey this time of the year, calm and a bit nostalgic. I always liked Polish banks, their stylish design and hands-on approach. Among EU banks — Polish are my personal favourite. At the first glance Poland is just an ordinary EU country. Everything is so well with the bank card acceptance everywhere, contactless support everyw...

/payments Fintech

Anna Kuzmina

Anna Kuzmina Expert at Fintech

Does Singapore need wallets?

“I’m sorry, we are just not that innovative here”, said bartender in Ritz-Carlton hotel in Singapore. “Please, I need your card, enter PIN, and now sign here too”. Yep, Singapore is no Iceland, or China, or even Moscow. For those spoilt by the ApplePay or GooglePay mobile payments, Singapore might not give you the smooth experience. We can observ...

/payments Asia Financial Services

Anna Kuzmina

Anna Kuzmina Expert at Fintech

Myanmar goes digital

Recently I was suggested to move to Myanmar. To my shame, I knew pretty much nothing about Myanmar, apart from it being Burma before. Ok, and except the fact that Myanmar is a Chinese gambling heaven. And that I have never been there or wanted to. So that got me curious — what in the world is happening in Myanmar? Credits to Guilherme Romano, Unsp...

/payments Asia Financial Services

Anna Kuzmina

Anna Kuzmina Expert at Fintech

Google, Facebook, Alibaba in Africa

So many mighty and powerful are drawn to the African countries, and I am not even talking about Chinese and their generous investment in infrastructural projects in 53 out of 54 countries of the continent. There are also 500 more companies from around the world, famous and not so much, that are actively investing in various business projects in Af...

Fintech innovation and startups

Anna Kuzmina

Anna Kuzmina Expert at Fintech

Cashless Iceland

When I was going to Iceland I thought there would be nothing much to say about payment habits in this country. Bank cards all around — contactless, easy, convenient, universal, boring. No cash needed. I was right. Payment for parking But hey, here are a few things that I can say. Americans might not feel themselves at ease with their magnetic stri...

/payments Fintech

Anna Kuzmina

Anna Kuzmina Expert at Fintech

Risky Georgia

Georgia is nice . I mean not the US state but the country — former USSR republic. Sweet home for the Caucasus Mountain villages and the Black Sea beaches. Delicious, dizzy and soulful place in memory of its visitors. But you can’t get by without laris (₾) here. Even though many of cafes, stores and hotels accept bank cards, and most of them suppor

/payments Fintech

Anna Kuzmina

Anna Kuzmina Expert at Fintech

Russian fintech miracle : Payment kiosk

Once upon a time in cold Russia of 2000 something important happened. A new payment system was born. It would soon dominate the whole country, become part of daily life of every single Russian, and spread across the borders to neighbouring Ukraine, Belarus and various X-stans. The invention so ingenious that it is still unclear why it did not take...

/payments Fintech

Anna Kuzmina

Anna Kuzmina Expert at Fintech

Kenya Case Study Part II: M-PESA vs The Market

So about competition with the star of our previous article — M-PESA. There should be some, right? Safaricom is by far the largest mobile operator in Kenya, with even calls by other operators to declare it dominant. The other telco players are Airtel and Telkom Kenya. See the interview about Kenya — M-PESA story: https://youtu.be/QlZuKwnsAS4 Acros...

/payments Fintech

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