Out of 8 million POS terminals in the U.S., only 150,000 are equipped to accept a payment from a mobile device. Despite this, Visa CEO Joseph Saunders sees vast potential in mobile payments. Visa has a stake in Square, currently valued at $3.25 billion, although that size of that stake is undisclosed.
One reason for Saunders’s optimism on the subject is a generational shift:
“What you’ve got is a whole younger generation that has been weaned on electronics… they learn how to touch a keyboard instead of playing the piano. They’re very comfortable with it. That’s what’s really, really going to push it.”
He also sees potential for Visa to grow in developing economies:
When you think of the opportunity for Visa in the long run, a lot is going to come from what’s going on in Africa, or what’s going on in India, or what’s going on in other economies that are less mature. It’s going to be as individuals move up into middle classes. Are they going to be using electronic money or aren’t they going to be using electronic money?
