The Shanzhai industry is always beyond your expectation. The idea can get copied very quick, and because you have to compete with other copies, you have to make sure you can bring something fancy in order to stand out in the market.
Recently we met iBoxPay, another Square liker from Shenzhen. Unlike Yeahka which is Shenzhen-based, iBoxPay’s product is not available in the market, yet. But, what impressed me is that the features promised on its official site are just amazing. RFID reader, Barcode Scanner, the Square-function, USBKey for secure, e-signature etc, it looks like iBoxPay is going to offer you a All-in-One solution combines with all future’s mobile payment methods. I just can not wait to check out how it will work.
Even more interesting, we also realized that the founder of iBoxPay is also the share-holder of GooApple, the Android-powered iPhone 4 clone. The founder also confirmed that iBoxPay had just closed its funding from a very famous international VC.
The word is that the central bank has just said no to swiping cards on phones. There isn’t going to be a Square like service in China.
Another very interesting Square-like solution! Unlike US where people just have to swap their card, the issue here in China is that you need to enter your PIN code. And regulation do not authorize to use iPhone keyboard for that. Hence a dongle connected on the iPhone is not enough to process the card payment. QFpay has developed a separated device to solve this issue. But not sure if it will be user friendly enough to be widely adopted…?