Paying by smiling at the checkout

July 11

Imagine being able to walk up to the checkout at any shop and just looking at the checkout screen as paid the bill. Smile and pay.

In 2017 Alibaba, the Chinese online merchant and tech company, launched Alipay. The customer registers online, their face is scanned by their phone. When the customer goes to the checkout at a participating shop, the Alipay facial recognition system recognizes them and charges their bank account the cost of the goods being purchased. A 3D camera located at the point-of-sale scans the customer’s face to verify their identity, while there is a phone number verification option for additional security.

The first company to install this new system was KFC. Alibaba is an investor in Yum Brands business in China which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. The technology behind the system is Face++ from a Chinese startup, Megvii. Tencent’s (another Chinese tech giant) WeChat pay uses a similar system.

Everything has progressed well with the system in the past 2 years and it is in widespread use. However, 60% of Chinese people who use the system, think that they look ugly in the photo that is shown on the screen during verification. The solution? Alipay is adding an AI driven beauty filter to the picture shown on the payment screen for a few seconds during the purchase. At least you will look good in the photo and to the person in line behind you. This reaction to the image shown on the screen is consistent with the wide spread beauty filter culture in China (and elsewhere with insta everything).

This is huge business as Alipay and WeChat pay both have approximately 1 Billion customers who they want to keep happy, no matter the reality.

Paying it Forward

If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product, ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and give the start-up a shout out to my readers if it is something that I think they could use. If you have any questions or comments please email me via my website craigcarlyon.com

Till next week.