“I honestly don’t think that mobile payments will ever fully replace cards or cash,” admits Paolo Rizzardini, VP of mobile payments at Infobip.
It’s a striking comment from a leader in the mobile payments sector, but it reflects a practical perspective: mobile payment options add convenience, yet they are unlikely to entirely displace established payment methods.
“Users need options and should be able to choose the method that best suits their habits,” Rizzardini continues. “It’s not our role to decide which option a user will pick. Our responsibility is to provide a secure, frictionless payment choice for the end user.”
Founded in 2002, Infobip only entered the mobile payments arena in recent years. Its primary offering, Centili, is aimed at micropayments and charges purchases directly to customers’ mobile bills.
Based in Croatia, Infobip has stronger ties with mobile operators than with banks — a relationship Rizzardini describes as part of the company’s “DNA.” Still, he acknowledges the balancing act involved in serving both sides of the ecosystem.
“We focus on the mobile operator because it’s in our DNA, while also working with the banking system,” he explains. “On one hand we expose operators’ billing capabilities; often they lack the specific technology to implement those payment flows, so we provide the necessary platform. On the other hand, we collaborate with the global market to bring merchants into the operator’s local market, ensuring end users have services they can purchase via mobile payments.”
“That merchant reach is a key element of the ecosystem,” he adds.
The relationship between banks and mobile operators can vary widely by country. For example, Rizzardini points to Russia as an exception where banks and operators cooperate closely. “In Russia, money flows through the banks, so every operator partners with a bank, and the bank handles the transfers to companies like ours operating in that market,” he says.
Fragmentation and competition are ongoing challenges for mobile payment providers. The sector contains many standards and participants, leaving limited room for maneuver. At Apps World Europe, industry voices suggested that while competition will persist, the market might gradually converge over the long term.
Rizzardini calls fragmentation “one of the biggest challenges we have.”
“Much of our work involves educating all ecosystem players and finding a common language. That effort aims not only to align industry participants but also to inform end users, since ultimately users must adopt the solution to make purchases,” he explains.
“I view fragmentation more as an opportunity than just a problem, but certainly a lot of work remains to harmonize approaches.”
On the crowded marketplace, he adds: “Many companies start in this business, but only five or six typically compete meaningfully at scale. It’s not solely about technology — it’s also about operational capability and cash flow. Those aspects are critically important.”
Centili’s approach — enabling small-value purchases billed through mobile carriers — exemplifies a niche within payments that remains relevant alongside cards and cash. As payment methods diversify, the key priorities for providers are security, simplicity and broad merchant acceptance.
As the UK prepared to introduce a new £1 coin in 2017, the broader debate continued: is the demise of cash being exaggerated? For now, industry leaders like Rizzardini suggest that cash and cards will remain part of a mixed payment landscape where mobile solutions play an important but complementary role.