What will the currency of the future look like? The Ambitions of the Financial Disruptors is now on sale.

The book Ambitions of the Financial Disruptors (Publisher: Toyo Keizai Inc., Author: Motonori Sato, Research Data Provided by: Hiroshi Nabeshima, Saio Yoshitomi), which utilized survey data from Dentsu Inc.'s "Financial Project*," was published on July 26.

*Established in 1998 to support financial institutions with marketing and business strategy, it has investigated market shifts and changes in consumer awareness and behavior for 20 years. It continues to provide new solutions to over 100 financial clients annually.

 

Trim size: B6, 216 pages, ¥1,400 + tax, ISBN 978-4-492-96152-0

In China, more people are going without wallets because they can pay with their smartphones. Eventually, facial recognition could enable payments, potentially eliminating the need for smartphones altogether. This book focuses on the economy moving toward such a cashless society.

Behind the world's rapid shift to cashless payments are giant corporations like Amazon and Alibaba. This book explains how these two companies are expanding their unique economic spheres, and further explores where the world is headed and how Japanese companies should respond.

The author calls Amazon and Alibaba "financial disruptors." The reason is that by adopting their own payment systems—Amazon's "1-Click Payment" and Alibaba's "Alipay," which enables easy mobile payments—they are rendering major financial institutions unnecessary.

While both Amazon and Alibaba provide various goods and services online, if a specific company can form an economic sphere at its core, it becomes possible not only to establish a payment system but also to issue its own currency usable solely within that sphere.

There's no need to link with card or bank networks. The emergence of a full-fledged virtual currency crossing national borders will make a completely cashless society a reality.

This book clearly explains the systems of companies driving this cashless movement and the era itself, serving as a guidebook for understanding the rapidly changing modern society.