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In China, economy dogged at decade's end

Dec 25, 2019
China started 2009 weathering the global financial crisis and ends the decade battling slower economic growth and a trade war with the U.S.
Jennifer Pak/Marketplace

Why Apple encourages holders of its new credit card not to swipe it

Mar 26, 2019
Apple’s launch event Monday for the first time included no new iPhones, Macs, Apple Watches or other devices.
Eric Thayer/Getty Images

Why can’t you pay for more things with a wave of your mobile phone?

Feb 25, 2019
We were promised mobile payments, but seems they're off with the jetpacks somewhere.
Guests demo Samsung Pay at Samsung Unpacked in 2015 in New York City.
Donald Bowers/Getty Images

How can mobile payments in China be greater than GDP?

Jan 22, 2019
Some listeners balked when we reported $23 trillion in mobile payments there in 2016.
Mobile payments made through third-party providers like Alipay bring China's total mobile payment transactions in 2016 to around $38 trillion.
Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

Going cashless in Shanghai

Jan 15, 2019
Chinese mobile payment apps have surged in popularity. Could U.S. credit card companies compete?
A driver pays a highway toll using mobile payment method Alipay in Zhejiang province.
STR/AFP/Getty Images

PayPal's president says this Cyber Monday is all about mobile

Nov 24, 2017
80 percent of Americans are expected to use their phones to shop this holiday season.
PayPal CEO Dan Schulman says the U.S. is “a laggard in digital payments.”
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Checks are the economic dinosaurs Americans won't give up

Aug 7, 2017
In the U.S., people wrote about 38 checks on average in 2015, compared to 18 in Canada, 8 in the U.K., and almost none in Germany.
A woman writes a check. 
Sherman / Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Are chip implants the payment method of the future?

May 24, 2016
BuzzFeed’s Charlie Warzel had an RFID chip implanted in his hand and lived to talk about it.
An employee of internet security company Kaspersky Lab has a microchip implanted in the area between his thumb and the index finger during a Kaspersky Lab press conference on biological, psychological and technological implications of microchip implants ahead of the opening of the 55th IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung) electronics trade fair in Berlin on September 3, 2015. 
JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images

Apple Pay debuts in China

Feb 18, 2016
Apple's mobile payment system faces stiff competition in the world's second-largest economy.
A display explaining that purchases can be made using Apple Pay, as well as other formats, at an Apple store in Shanghai.
STR/AFP/Getty Images

Now you can authorize mobile payments with a selfie

Jul 3, 2015
Buy some coffee, take a selfie. Buy a shirt, take a selfie. Buy some ice cream...