Let’s be honest: the universe of online payment service providers (PSPs) has a population density rivaling Tokyo. The ability to digitally transfer money via a trusted third party on the internet was notably popularized by PayPal in the late 1990s and early 2000s as e-commerce exploded onto the scene. For years, PayPal was the undisputed king of the castle, the name synonymous with the other way to render payment online without directly using a credit or debit card.
While PayPal still commands a dominant market share — the brand ranks number one in usage out of 167 payment processing technologies tracked by Datanyze — it faces mounting competition from the likes of Stripe, Square and Amazon Pay.
With so many services in the payments milieu barking for attention, you’re likely wondering what sets the winners apart. Here’s a look at four PSPs breaking away from the pack and the features that make each unique.
Neteller
With roots dating back to 1999, Neteller is one of the oldest and most trusted providers in online payments. In fact, billions of dollars are transacted across the service in 200 countries annually. Talk about global reach!
What we love about Neteller is how easy it is to fund your account and transfer money to virtually anyone anywhere. Customers can deposit money with Neteller from traditional bank accounts, credit and debit cards and some 40 other sources. In addition to its vast portfolio of accepting merchants, Neteller also leverages the Mastercard network. Such relationship enables customers to pay anywhere Mastercard is accepted with the Neteller prepaid card.
WePay
WePay started in 2008 as an online PSP aimed at pooling money from groups of people in a consolidated fashion. Founder Richard Aberman was struck by the idea after paying outright for a party and then collecting split reimbursements from 14 friends via a cumbersome meddle of cash, checks and PayPal.
Along the way, WePay transitioned into a payments processor that uses APIs to transparently integrate with an e-commerce platform. Many PSPs redirect you to their site to render payment when you make a purchase at the site of an accepting merchant. Not WePay. Your payment experience is frictionless, and you never leave the merchant site through the checkout process.
WePay also powers charitable crowdfunding giant GoFundMe, which gives the service extra points in the do-good department.
Neosurf
Playing in the arena of payment processing for online games and telcos, Neosurf is a surging PSP in Africa and Europe. Neosurf breaks the traditional mold of services that try to be a payments cure-all by focusing on specific industries and use cases. That’s a good thing as it allows Neosurf to be the expert PSP in the niches in which the service operates. The model works as Neosurf is accepted by many recognizable brands, such as League of Legends, PokerStars Casino and the free VoipBuster. In total, 20,000 partner sites make up the Neosurf network.
Another novel approach we’re excited about is the way Neosurf works with the physical retail-to-online conversion of funds. Customers purchase Neosurf vouchers at brick-and-mortar retailers like supermarkets and convenience stores. The vouchers are then redeemed as payments online at the sites of accepting merchants. It’s an especially great solution for people who like the benefit of in-person custom service when transacting money.
Square Cash
Born from the Square, Inc. ecosystem best known for point-of-sale systems and other vendor services, Square Cash is a convenient way to facilitate peer-to-peer money transfers. Customers download the Square Cash mobile app to their Android or iOS device and connect a bank account. Sending and receiving cash is performed directly from the app without the need to browse and login to a website.
Beginning in January 2018, Square Cash functionality was extended to support Bitcoin transfers. With cryptocurrencies strongly positioned as the future of money, we anxiously await to see what cool technology emerges in the PSP space. Square Cash is already at the forefront of this bold new frontier.
Look around the crowd, and you’re sure to find a quality PSP that best suits your money transfer needs. Neteller, WePay, Neosurf and Square Cash are a few leveraging a secret sauce to differentiate from the competition. We expect even more standout approaches are on the horizon for PSPs as the landscape expands and cryptocurrency gains traction.
Photograph by Jarmoluk