Citi Perspectives 2024 E-commerce Edition

Scott Damassa Global Head of Sales for E-Commerce, Technology, and Communications, Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions | 45 The Evolving Internet: Microtransactions for Web3 President! to execute microtransactions cost-effectively could prompt product and engineering teams to look beyond fintechs and services providers, who charge a markup, and go directly to banks — cutting out the middleman. Banks are well positioned to offer a better solution for things such as instant payments, from an operational and value perspective. Being able to access instant payment programs at scale and with a low cost-per- payment will be an important step toward a viable web3 microtransaction-supported model. This newmodel could enable many of our clients to imagine new products and use cases that take advantage of the increased speed and reduced cost of payments. At Citi, we have been investing in our instant payment suite of services that are available in over 60 countries (and growing), both via local accounts and through our WorldLink Payment Services, a complete global transaction solution that enables making cross-border payments in more than 135 currencies without the need to maintain local currency accounts. Tools, such as, Spring by Citi, providing the ability for clients to collect via credit cards, direct debits, and the emerging instant payment methods, can be a foundational element of the future microtransaction model and the conversations with our clients about the future use cases of these tools have been nothing short of inspiring. The future…a multi-model internet? Web3 is predicted to offer users the choice of both payment models. Some internet users may choose the ad-supported model so that services can be free, and for some it may not be a choice since they may lack the means to pay for internet services. Others may gladly make micropayments for access, thus helping to ensure their data in no longer harvested without their permission and used for economic purposes beyond their control. We should continue to enable payment models that provide customers with as many choices as possible to define what is best for them. And as usual, whatever forms of payment eventually emerge as the key to cost-effective web3 microtransactions, they will assuredly be ubiquitous and offer a range of choices that can help meet user preferences. Listen to this article