
Amazon’s Next Mission: Using Alexa to Help You Pay Friends - SREinSF
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hey-alexa-can-you-help-amazon-get-into-the-payments-business-1523007000
======
freehunter
The problem with everyone getting into "pay your friends" is that everyone
wants to be paid in a different way and you need a dozen different accounts.
And it seems like everyone wants to help you pay your friends these days.

~~~
ryandrake
This is fully generalizable to all kinds of software nowadays.

The problem with everyone getting into "[SOFTWARE PRODUCT]" is that everyone
wants to [DO THIS SOFTWARE THING] in a different way and you need a dozen
different accounts. And it seems like everyone wants to help you [DO THIS
SOFTWARE THING] these days.

It’s like Beta vs VHS, with 3-20 incompatible competitors, over and over and
over for eternity.

~~~
freehunter
Then someone comes in and says “we need [software thing] as a protocol like
email” and then someone invents [software thing] as a protocol and now
everyone on HN wonders why no one uses [software thing] as a protocol despite
its obvious superiority.

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bamboozled
I find it perplexing how Amazon is churning out new products so quickly. How
do they do it?

AWS is radical in this way too! New products are launching constantly.

~~~
walterbell
[https://www.vox.com/new-money/2016/12/28/13889840/amazon-
inn...](https://www.vox.com/new-money/2016/12/28/13889840/amazon-innovation-
google-apple)

 _" … experiments start small and grow over time … Amazon creates a small team
to experiment with the idea and find out if it’s viable. Bezos famously
instituted the “two-pizza team” rule, which says that teams should be small
enough to be fed with two pizzas … new teams get limited funding and clear
milestones; if a team succeeds in smaller challenges, it’s given more
resources and a larger challenge to tackle.

… Amazon doesn’t spend too much time on internal testing. “They prioritize
launching early over everything else,” … Bezos has been fanatical about
letting teams operate independently of one another … discouraged the kind of
standardization you see at companies like Google and Apple, encouraging teams
to operate independently using whatever technology makes the most sense … to
make Amazon a modular, flexible organization with a minimum of company-wide
policies.

That has made Amazon’s internal culture somewhat chaotic and balkanized. An
engineer on one Amazon project can’t easily jump to another the way they can
at Google or Apple. Friction between teams with different cultures may explain
why some people find Amazon a stressful place to work. But this chaotic
culture is also hospitable to innovation. A new team can use the tools and
processes that make the most sense instead of feeling pressure to conform to
company-wide standards."_

~~~
whoisthisfor
I disagree with:

> can’t easily jump to another the way they can at Google or Apple.

I've never worked at Google or Apple, but I work in AWS. I see people
switching teams, across different organizations within AWS and the retail
business. When I first started, you had to stay on your team for 1 year before
you could transfer, now there is no such restriction.

I will agree with the

> encouraging teams to operate independently using whatever technology makes
> the most sense

~~~
burger_moon
I also work in AWS and will agree with,

>Friction between teams with different cultures may explain why some people
find Amazon a stressful place to work

It can be incredibly difficult working with other teams, but hat's not unique
to Amazon.

Mostly just that in general it's a very stressful place to work regardless of
being an engineer or other role there.

------
rsynnott
While I’ve never used any of these services (I just use cash, or a bank
transfer if someone pays for hotel rooms or something), surely most use-cases
are when out and about, not when in the living room with your talking speaker
thing?

~~~
blackoil
Speaker thingy is just one interface, your mobile also can talk to Alexa.

~~~
acct1771
Humanizing the Alexa service is a huge sign of our downfall.

Don't let them do this to us.

~~~
tomcatfish
That's not humanizing, it's slang. When describing some network operations
non-technically, one might say that device A "talks to" device B

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kyrra
For what it's worth, you can do this today with Google Pay with Google
assistant on a phone[0]. It works on iOS and Android today[1].

[0]
[https://support.google.com/pay/send/answer/7544913](https://support.google.com/pay/send/answer/7544913)

[1] [https://venturebeat.com/2018/03/22/google-assistant-can-
now-...](https://venturebeat.com/2018/03/22/google-assistant-can-now-send-
money-to-friends-and-family-with-google-pay/)

(Disclaimer: I work on payments at Google)

~~~
timcederman
Same with Siri and Apple Pay.

------
simonsarris
Amazon does this kind of thing all the time and most people just forget the
times that it fails.

[https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/amazon-shutting-
do...](https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/amazon-shutting-down-its-
register-credit-card-processor/)

Not all of them actually pan out. Similar story for Etsy competition. (Amazon
launched "handmade" in 2015 and kinda maybe relaunched last year. It might
have more success this time).

Amazon might have a better time trying to buy PayPal (for venmo) or Square
(for Cash App and to compete in the field they already gave up on). It would
be amusing if this announcement was calculated to hit their stock price for a
cheaper acquisition. That's probably way too cheeky, but for a lot of markets,
Amazon has had more success acquiring than building their own.

~~~
dmix
No way Amazon could buy PayPal. Their customer service is the polar opposite,
it'd be a giant culture clash.

~~~
pavs
When doing buy-outs or acquisations, how often do company consider culture-
class as an obstacle? I would think thats not even brought up during
discussion.

For a startup, it might make sense. Not for large established companies.

------
dzink
It is much easier to do it through Alexa than let’s say HN. It ties to an
account with each person and they are all known to the company. Payments are
scary between strangers. The more data you have, the cheaper you can process
safely.

------
product50
They literally have no differentiation here vs. Messenger Square Pay or Google
Pay or Venmo. So much metoo in this thing.

~~~
intopieces
Can you ask a smart speaker to pay someone else by name using any of those
services?

~~~
guntars
It begs the question - exactly what kind of problem does paying with a smart
speaker solve over just using your phone? Also, how much is that worth to you?

~~~
intopieces
The central question for Amazon is not “what problem does this solve?” but
“does this feature or product delight customers” and “how does this generate
more revenue for Amazon?” With this in mind, the feature accomplishes both:
customer have demonstrated the desire to pay or their friends and family (by
the popularity of Venmo and others) while the funds will then be available to
purchase items on Amazon.

------
localcdn
[https://archive.fo/uJHYp](https://archive.fo/uJHYp)

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neom
Is venmo the hotness everywhere, or is this just an NYC thing? We venmo
_everything_.

~~~
adjkant
Nope, it's an everyone young people under 25 (or so) thing.

The payments holy trinity is Venmo, Tab, and Splitwise.

Tab is for splitting specific checks with easy itemization and multi-person
selection + easy tip calculations, connects with Venmo. Mobile app only.

Splitwise is great for running tabs, traveling in groups, or complex splits.
Keeps track of who paid and who split and even simplifies to the fewest number
of payments, of course also done by Venmo. Great desktop site with a good
mobile app as well.

The only thing I'm waiting for is to import a Tab bill into Splitwise!

~~~
AznHisoka
I live in NYC and have never used Venmo before (and am over 25). It is just
cash, credit or checks (ugh) for me.

~~~
adjkant
How do you split a check at a restaurant with a group?

~~~
AznHisoka
I usually just pay it all myself, or someone volunteers to do so, and we all
say we’ll take turns.

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oh-kumudo
That is a good idea. Sending money through voice is very natural.

Disclaimer: I worked in AWS.

~~~
qntty
Explain? I wouldn't trust speech recognition software with money personally.

~~~
dcre
People didn't trust computers with money either. Then they didn't trust phone-
shaped computers with money.

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joering2
In a Hacker News spirit - wait for an article titled “malware screaming -
Alexa, pay jfirbxhsnxbd at gmail dot com one hundred bucks now - in the raise”

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arisAlexis
bitcoin payments are next maybe?

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tictok4
Why not use cash?

~~~
ggg9990
Hard to do exact change and I don’t want to owe anyone or be owed anything. We
go out to dinner and the bill is $71.53 split four ways — would rather not use
cash for that.

