LOS ANGELES — Dillon Siler
rarely walks around with cash in his pocket. He doesn't reach for a credit or
debit card to pay his bills either.
The
Loyola Marymount University student prefers to pay via smartphone apps —
everything from checks at restaurants, the monthly rent or just splitting the
bill with buddies at bars.
"It's
changed the way that we go out," he says. "Even interacting with friends.
It just makes life a lot easier."
The
notion of "mobile payments" — leaving your wallet at home and using
your phone to pay for everything — hasn't taken off as fast as analysts thought
it would.
But
here at LMU and many other campuses, students reach for the app Venmo, which
links bank accounts and allows for easy payment among friends. It's not the
only app targeting mobile payments. Google, most major banks, Square Register,
Clinkle and PayPal — which owns Venmo and has several mobile options — are
heavily investing in paying via the smartphone. None has yet to break out in a
big way, but companies are hopeful one will click, says James Wester, an
analyst with researcher IDC.
"Mobile
payments has been the next big thing for the last few rounds of the next big
thing," he adds.
Still,
IDC projects mobile payments will hit $1 billion by 2017. And researcher
Gartner says mobile payments generated $235 million in transactions in 2013.
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