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Brazil's government-run payments system has become dominant

(www.economist.com)
666 points jcartw | 3 comments | 08 Apr 25 10:59 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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nirui ◴[08 Apr 25 13:55 UTC] No.43621834[source]▶
I'm thinking, maybe controversially, centralized national payment service like this should be government-run based on my experience with Alipay which is a digital payment service in China.

Due to it's commercial origin, Alipay is filled with unwanted ads and traps. Almost every time I made a payment with it, a pop up prompts me to enlist their Ant Financial LOAN service either now, or being prompted for the same question again 30 days later (yep, not Yes or No, but Now or Later). It's just fucking ridiculous, I don't need a LOAN for a $400 projector, and I don't need a LOAN for a $4 hair cut (Xi should probably do something about it, really).

I'm glad that at least people of Brazil don't have to suffer that kind of shit. At least their government-run program is better scrutinized and boring, thus more dependable, that's a good thing in my eyes.

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1. uselesswords ◴[08 Apr 25 22:35 UTC] No.43627147[source]▶
Why is it that apps in the US are not as (overtly) commercialized or gamified (like Temu) as some of their chinese-counterparts? Is american culture just less tolerant of it? You would think there is more profit to be made by doing so which would be very capitalistic in a sense.
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2. hammock ◴[09 Apr 25 00:57 UTC] No.43627922[source]▶
Because we have a Northern European streak in our heritage that is heavily against all that flashy casino style crud
3. kccqzy ◴[09 Apr 25 01:14 UTC] No.43628001[source]▶
> Is american culture just less tolerant of it?

Yes I think so. These flashy gamified things are considered kitsch. Designers here prefer lots of white space.