Can Android NFC Become an e-Payment Solution for Indonesia?

Mobile Android Google's output is increasingly popular in Indonesia, just like in other countries people can buy smartphone at a relatively cheaper price than iPhone. And more interestingly, last year's Eric Schmidt announce Android Gingerbread support for NFC (Near Field Communication) and of course payment is the main use.

In Indonesia, the electronic payment method or e-payments has long been a problem without a meaningful solution. Why? Due to the lack of interest of the users. For payments, we usually prefer to do it via bank transfer. This may be due to the lack of service and convenience for users. E-payments it's more complicated than e-banking or m-banking.

But of course this can be easily overcome.

Seen from increase Android phone trend in Indonesia, it looks like Android will become platform number one for the next 3-4 years, or maybe less than that. And coupled with the fact that Android is heavily promoting NFC support, it is highly likely that Android NFC will become popular in Indonesia as a solution e-payments. The trend of increasing use of Android phones in Indonesia, the increasing interest in shopping online and the size of the market smartphone in Indonesia seems to be the right combination.

Over the past few years, credit card penetration in Indonesia is still very low, which is why platform payment by credit card is not popular in Indonesia. However, with growing Indonesian economy and consumer purchasing power, I think e-payment platforms will grow tremendously in the next few years, even though the number of credit card usage is not much. Debit cards may still dominate the market, but mobile solutions e-payments is in sight.

The growing popularity of Android, domination smartphone, increasing mobile internet, combined with increasing purchasing power, Android NFC payment solutions could gain significant popularity in Indonesia. All I know is that Indonesia will probably become big markets next for internet services and mobile devices. Or maybe I'm too biased. ;)

[English version for this post]

Translated by Nita Sellya.