{"id":1161,"date":"2015-12-05T15:57:22","date_gmt":"2015-12-05T20:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\/"},"modified":"2015-12-05T15:57:22","modified_gmt":"2015-12-05T20:57:22","slug":"missed-opportunities-at-coin","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\/","title":{"rendered":"Missed Opportunities at Coin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coin is a credit card shaped device that links to a customer\u2019s smart phone.\u00a0 The device can be programmed to mimic any credit card\u2019s magnetic stripe when used at a credit card terminal.\u00a0 Customers can add all of their credit cards to the Coin, as well as loyalty cards and gift cards. Because the\u00a0shape is identical to a conventional credit card, it can be used anywhere cards are accepted, and eliminates the need for customers to carry a wallet full of plastic cards.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gJBZMUuhUrw<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Competitive Landscape<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Coin aims to combine all cards into one, its competitors, such as Apple Pay, eliminate cards entirely by using the smart phone to make payments using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.\u00a0 This technology\u00a0allows payments to be made by touching the phone to a payment terminal. \u00a0However, merchants must have an NFC compatible payment terminal, requiring a substantial investment for the merchant, and slowing NFC adoption.\u00a0 Coin has the short term advantage of being compatible with all existing credit card payment terminals,\u00a0and can be swiped as if it were a regular credit card.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Business Model<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coin sells devices for $99\u00a0– $129, and does not collect any ongoing transaction fees when the Coin is used. \u00a0Because Coin does not generate any additional from customers after the unit is sold, they must rely exclusively on unit sales and seek widespread adoption in order to be successful.\u00a0 This is in contrast to Apple Pay and other competitors, who are able to take a transaction fee when customers use their product.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"coin2\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Operating Model<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coin is primarily a device company, rather than a payments technology. \u00a0Coin can flourish under the current system of magnetic stripe credit card payments, but they must deliver a\u00a0product quickly in order to get ahead of slower moving competitors who must\u00a0rely on merchant adoption to fuel their success.\u00a0 If Coin can achieve widespread adoption, it\u00a0may be able to slow the spread of NFC technology and other competitors, and prolong its relevance in the payments space.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Failure of Alignment<\/strong><\/p>\n

In November of 2013, Coin launched a crowdfunding campaign to considerable fanfare, raising\u00a0the required $50,000 in just 40 minutes [1]. \u00a0The design team faced a daunting task of fitting an embedded chip, Bluetooth connectivity and a battery into a device the same size and thickness as a credit card.<\/p>\n

\"applepay\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The anticipated date to ship devices to consumers was Summer 2014, but when the date arrived, Coin announced that it would only be available in a limited beta to select customers [2]. The company claimed the final product would ship in Spring of 2015, nine months late. \u00a0Not long after, Apple announced the launch of Apple Pay on September 9th<\/sup>, 2014 [3].\u00a0 This gave Apple months to build support for its technology while the Coin was still under development.\u00a0 Apple Pay quickly generated impressive usage statistics, racking up over a million users in just the first three days, and compatibility with thousands of large retailers [3].<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"emv\"Another looming issue while the Coin was still under development was the October 1st<\/sup> 2015 deadline for merchants to accept EMV enables credit cards, or face increased liability from credit card fraud.\u00a0 EMV is a chip included in credit cards which makes them more difficult to forge. Coin was not fully EMV compatible, a serious development shortcoming.\u00a0 The EMV shift was a boon for Apple Pay, because merchants needed to invest in updated payment terminals to meet the new EMV requirements, so it was easy to purchase equipment which also accepted NFC payments at little extra cost.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Future of Coin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because of the delays in designing and manufacturing the product, Coin missed the opportunity to fill a niche and prolong its relevance. Consumers complained that despite the claims, the Coin did not function at all credit card terminals [4].\u00a0 Coin failed to align its product development operations with its higher level strategic and timeline goals. \u00a0Key to the success of the business was delivering a fully functional product, with EMV capabilities, before widespread NFC adoption took place.\u00a0 While it is still early in the company’s life to determine its fate with certainty, Coin struggles to provide customer value in the current market, while still being dogged by\u00a0complaints the the Coin isn\u2019t fully functional.\u00a0 By not aligning their development and manufacturing timelines to take advantage of the payments landscape, Coin severely disadvantaged itself and may struggle to gain any meaningful adoption.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

1\u00a0<\/strong>http:\/\/bgr.com\/2013\/11\/20\/coin-raises-50000-dollars\/<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2015\/8\/26\/9208095\/coin-2-ship-date-nfc<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/strong>\u00a0https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Apple_Pay<\/a><\/p>\n

4\u00a0<\/b>http:\/\/recode.net\/2015\/07\/13\/i-waited-19-months-for-the-magic-coin-card-and-it-was-a-big-disappointment\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coin failed to take advantage of a unique but temporary niche in the consumer payments space by giving users a way to eliminate the need for carrying all their credit cards.\u00a0 Due to development and other operating failures, competitors have emerged\u00a0which greatly threaten its viability as a company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1174,"featured_media":1162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[18,119,91,247],"class_list":["post-1161","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-consumer","category-loser","category-mobile","category-payments"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/the-tom-challenge-tom-winners-and-losers-assignment\/","yoast_head":"\nMissed Opportunities at Coin - Technology and Operations Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Missed Opportunities at Coin - Technology and Operations Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Coin failed to take advantage of a unique but temporary niche in the consumer payments space by giving users a way to eliminate the need for carrying all their credit cards.\u00a0 Due to development and other operating failures, competitors have emerged\u00a0which greatly threaten its viability as a company.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Technology and Operations Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/coin.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"575\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"390\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\\\/\",\"name\":\"Missed Opportunities at Coin - Technology and Operations Management\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/coin.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-05T20:57:22+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/coin.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/coin.jpg\",\"width\":575,\"height\":390},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Submissions\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Missed Opportunities at Coin\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/\",\"name\":\"Technology and Operations Management\",\"description\":\"MBA Student Perspectives\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"性视界Action\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Missed Opportunities at Coin - Technology and Operations Management","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Missed Opportunities at Coin - Technology and Operations Management","og_description":"Coin failed to take advantage of a unique but temporary niche in the consumer payments space by giving users a way to eliminate the need for carrying all their credit cards.\u00a0 Due to development and other operating failures, competitors have emerged\u00a0which greatly threaten its viability as a company.","og_url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\/","og_site_name":"Technology and Operations Management","og_image":[{"width":575,"height":390,"url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/coin.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\/","url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\/","name":"Missed Opportunities at Coin - Technology and Operations Management","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/coin.jpg","datePublished":"2015-12-05T20:57:22+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/coin.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/coin.jpg","width":575,"height":390},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/missed-opportunities-at-coin\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Submissions","item":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Missed Opportunities at Coin"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/","name":"Technology and Operations Management","description":"MBA Student Perspectives","potentialAction":[{"@type":"性视界Action","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hck-submission\/1161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hck-submission"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/hck-submission"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hck-submission\/1161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}