Americans already benefit from (and pay for) the convenience of credit and debit cards—the cutting-edge financial technology of the 1960s. Mobile payments are an improvement on cards but not as dramatic an improvement as the jump straight from cash. As with China’s rapid transition to the mobile internet, the country’s weakness in incumbent technology (desktop computers, landline phones, and credit cards) turned into the strength that let it leapfrog into a new paradigm.
Idem for African markets
