The world is not the US and the US isn't the world.
most of the developed world does. even Eastern Europe have transformed themselves into a NFC bonanza.
> The Netherlands
the netherlands is the wrong example. it has always been an outlier when it comes to card payments. case in point: you can't even make a Visa/Mastercard payment in an AH supermarket, you need a Maestro card.
> The world is not the US and the US isn't the world.
i have travelled quite a bit. most the of the developed world (except for the Netherlands of course) has full support for Visa/Mastercard NFC. and Amex support is more and more spread (e.g. i have seen more and more Stripe in Greece lately). the world is moving on from the idea you have of it.
The are many developed and developing countries that operate their own card networks, peer-to-peer payment technologies, and generally cheaper faster alternatives to Mastercard/Visa, with many merchants preferring them to their U.S. counterparts.
Visa/Mastercard may have dominance in the English speaking west, and many tourists location for the English speaking west, but assuming Visa/Mastercard is some gold standard the world should aspire to is very naïve. In reality alternatives like UPI and other peer-to-peer systems are more likely to be the payment systems of the future. Continued Mastercard/Visa dominance in its current form only really makes sense in countries with outdated and inadequate banking infrastructure, like the U.S.
i find that very hard to believe as the user interaction for qr codes is a step backwards from using an nfc with a phone’s wallet. and once you use the nfc solution it’s very hard to switch back to a system that is less friendly.
of course, if you take the QR codes out of the equation and replace with NFC then i see no issues.
> Continued Mastercard/Visa dominance in its current form only really makes sense in countries with outdated and inadequate banking infrastructure, like the U.S.
you are wrong. if anything the system is getting more widely used. europe for example has very advanced banking infra and is all in on nfc, with mastercard/visa/amex widely accepted, and the system is being adopted everywhere.
Even the GBV Transport network lets you use NFC cards directly, without having to buy a separate card or ticket. You get a charge 6 days later after they tally up your trips.
I like UPI, but paying with NFC Cards is so much simpler, easier, and faster.
India does have the infrastructure and accepts credit cards but it's not available everywhere and UPI is more widespread in India. It can be found in street side sellers to massive retail stores. While the street side sellers won't have the methods to accept credit cards, massive stores probably will and there are always ATMs so cash is a thing. For travel we have Uber, and Uber accepts credit cards. so, You don't need UPI but it's a great convenience to have. On the other hand, Not having Internet access after you get out of the airport is definitely a problem.
