NFC Technology: The Time is Right?

UNICEF Hong Kong's donation drive campaign utilising NFC stickers was certainly an interesting one. Innovative and Inspiring it was called, and rightly so. Facing difficulties in acquiring volunteers and reaching out to donators, UNICEF turned to technology as their saviour and were hugely rewarded for it. By pasting NFC stickers on donators, and encouraging them to seek other donators as well, the campaign brought a 30-fold increase in the number of volunteers, and each sticker raised an additional six donations each.

There's no denying that this was an innovative campaign, and a successful one. But is the time right for the technology to be utilised more extensively? And in different countries?

Hong Kong certainly had a suitable mobile landscape for this project to succeed. They did their legwork, saw the opportunity, and jumped onto a successful campaign. But for similar success to be replicated in other countries, is hugely questionable.

As has been pointed out, Singapore is a good case in point. We are not quite a backward nation when it comes to adoption of new technology, but we tend to 'take our time' in most instances. In Asia, countries like Japan and Korea often become a 'test-bed' of sorts before the technology sets foot here. I can't quite put my finger on why this phenomenon is so, but perhaps it is to do with the difficulty in changing the mindsets of Singaporeans. We often get into our ritualistic habits, and find it hard to jump into something new. Old habits die hard..

A case in point could be seen when the new ez-link cards were introduced some years back. Singaporeans practically had to be forced to pick up a new card that would open new doors and channels to them in terms of convenience of purchase. Right till the last day, there were still scores of people yet to arm themselves with the latest in technology.

I doubt it's that Singaporeans scorn technology. But we tend to have a mindset that the 'evil corporations' are trying to rip us off in some way with every new technology they introduce. Before I meander off-course, the point I was getting at is the neccesity to re-educate and change mindsets of consumers here. And with NFC, at this point of time, I think it will be necessary to dedicate a bit of marketing dollars if the belief is that NFC will play a significant role in marketing in the near future.

In some ways, we're already seeing some of this with VISA and their payWave system, which is essentially paying for your purchases via NFC technology. They've invested quite a bit in advertising dollars already with some prominent TV ads. They've had prizes given out for some lucky payWave users. More recently, they've started giving additional points out for using payWave. All this to encourage an adoption and a change of purchasing habits.

At the end of the day, I feel all these will have limited success. NFC can be a prominent technology at the forefront of our daily lives and purchasing habits. But, at this juncture, the main barrier to its success is quite simply the availability of NFC Technology to the masses.

NFC would have a huge chance at success if it was already in the pockets of the masses. At this stage, it is perhaps only in pockets of less than half of the masses. With the proliferation of iPhone users in Singapore, and Apple's draconian insistence on trying to be the next Microsoft, this means that most mobile users in Singapore do not have access to NFC technology as the iPhone is not equipped with NFC technology.

This could all change quickly though as Android phones are fast gaining headway in this market, and Apple themselves could change the landscape quickly by introducing NFC enabled iPhones (upon which the first thing we should do is to buy shares in companies producing NFC contactless gateways ;)). But till then, as promising as NFC is, I think for both consumers and marketeers, it will remain in its own little niche instead of jumping onto the mainstream. But, as with everything, it is just a matter of time, and we would be wise to keep an eye on NFC and its growth.