Visa’s Everywhere Lounge in Austin set the stage for several exciting events that emphasized our commitment to shaping the future of payments and fostering industry collaboration. Recognized as one of the best interactive brand experiences in Austin, the Visa Everywhere Lounge introduced guests to some of our latest innovations, including a Visa-enabled connected car that will automatically pay for gas or parking and a Biometrics Bar that will serve up coffee, thanks to several biometric payment possibilities (fingerprint, eye scan or facial recognition). We also showcased an innovative retail experience, in which guests could try on Rio 2016 Olympic gear in front of magic mirrors using Visa Checkout’s new interactive button, demonstrating just how easy and fast we’re making mobile payments.
Tech Talks included an insightful discussion by Visa’s data scientists and research experts about how the volume and value of Visa’s data can help make payments easier and more secure. Panel guests were escorted by Uber with the help of an experience powered by the new Visa Commerce Network (VCN), which allows merchants to
provide online and in-app payment offers to attract new customers, drive loyalty and boost sales.
For our second-annual Everywhere Initiative, we invited five exciting startups to pitch product ideas using Visa APIs. As a judge on the panel, I was inspired watching emerging talent creatively innovate around our newly launched Visa Developer, a new open platform designed to give developers access to Visa’s most popular products and services in order to create new commerce experiences. Ledge, a mobile finance platform based out of Los Angeles, pitched the winning idea: a prototype that would integrate Visa Direct to power the exchange of funds in Ledge crowdfunding campaigns. As a judge, this idea aligned perfectly with our promise to be the best way to pay and be paid by leveraging our technology for an emerging payment platform. (The main competition for the Everywhere Initiative will open on April 14 with two upcoming challenges. Stay tuned for more information on Visa.com.)
During the “Shaping the Future of Commerce” Tech Talk, I joined a panel of technology leaders from Visa and our partners to discuss how and why Visa decided to open its network with Visa Developer. The “how” stems from years of investment into our processing platforms, products and services and our leading payments network, VisaNet, to allow direct access to some of Visa’s APIs (like a Visa Checkout API), tools and expertise. The “why” was clear to us in its potential to transform commerce and accelerate innovation. This launch, in fact, is a milestone for us. For the first time in Visa’s 60-year history, developers around the world will have access to some of Visa’s once-proprietary technology. The decision was motivated by the idea that the future of digital payments should be built on a foundation already known for greater security, scale and convenience.
While we don’t know exactly what the future of payments will hold, it is our job as payment technology leaders to provide the tools and network that would facilitate innovation in digital payments. Commerce will continue to evolve and Visa will be there to enable thousands of financial institutions, millions of merchants and technology companies to collaborate, share, and search for innovative digital commerce applications and services. But as we lead the charge, our focus remains the same—to be the best way to pay and be paid, for everyone, everywhere.
–Sam Shrauger, SVP, Digital Solutions, Visa