#payment aggregator

[haodatech]

Success Factors for Payment Orchestration Software at Haoda Tech

In the rapidly evolving digital payment ecosystem, businesses are dealing with multiple payment gateways, providers, currencies, and customer expectations. Payment failures, high transaction costs, and limited flexibility often result in lost revenue and poor customer experience. This is where Payment Orchestration Platform comes in — and at Haoda Tech, we specialize in building smart, scalable, and secure orchestration platforms tailored to modern business needs.

But what truly makes a payment orchestration system successful?

Here are the key success factors that define the Haoda Tech advantage:

1. Seamless Multi-Provider Integration

Haoda Tech’s payment orchestration software supports integration with multiple payment gateways, processors, acquirers, and alternative payment methods across the globe. Whether it's Razorpay, PayU, Stripe, or international players like Adyen and PayPal — our system gives you the freedom to plug and play with the best options.

Result: Better transaction routing, higher success rates, and reduced vendor dependency.

2. Smart Transaction Routing Engine

At the heart of our platform is an AI-driven routing engine that automatically directs each transaction to the most cost-effective and reliable payment processor. The engine evaluates success rates, transaction fees, regional rules, and currency compatibility in real-time.

Outcome: Lower processing costs, faster payments, and fewer failures.

3. Centralized Monitoring & Real-Time Analytics

Haoda Tech provides businesses with a centralized dashboard to monitor every transaction, across every provider, in real time. From status alerts to settlement timelines, merchants get complete visibility and actionable insights through custom analytics and reporting tools.

Benefit: Instant problem resolution, better planning, and higher control over cash flow.

4. Failover Mechanism & Redundancy

Our POS is designed with built-in redundancy protocols. If a payment fails with one gateway, it is instantly rerouted to another active provider without disrupting the customer experience. This significantly improves transaction success rates and minimizes revenue loss.

Advantage: Business continuity and frictionless user experience.

5. Global Reach with Local Support

Haoda Tech’s orchestration platform is ready for global commerce — supporting local payment methods, country-specific regulations, and multi-currency processing. Whether you’re expanding across India or going international, our system adapts to your strategy.

Support for UPI, Netbanking, BNPL, wallets, and international cards.

6. Rock-Solid Security & Compliance

We take compliance seriously. Our software is PCI-DSS compliant and offers advanced features like tokenization, two-factor authentication, encryption, and AI-based fraud detection.

Peace of Mind: Your customer data is secure, and your business stays compliant.

7. Developer-Friendly APIs & Modular Design

Our orchestration platform comes with clean, well-documented APIs and webhooks. Developers can integrate quickly, test easily in sandbox environments, and customize modules as the business evolves.

Scalable architecture = future-ready payments.

8. Tailored to Your Business

Every business is different — and that’s why we don’t believe in one-size-fits-all. At Haoda Tech, we work closely with clients to understand their operations and build the best payment orchestration development company that scales with them.

From startups to enterprises, we make payment automation work for everyone.

Final Thoughts

A great payment orchestration platform is more than just tech — it's a strategic advantage. At Haoda Tech, we deliver platforms that are intelligent, reliable, and built for growth. With the right tools, your business can offer smoother checkouts, reduce costs, and tap into global markets with confidence.

Ready to streamline your payment infrastructure? Let’s build it together.

Get a free consultation from Haoda Tech today!

Call us-  1800 202 3306

[worldline-ind]

Understanding the Difference: Payment Gateway vs Payment Aggregator

In India’s fast-evolving digital payment space, two core terms dominate the backend of every successful transaction — Payment Gateway and Payment Aggregator. They sound similar, but their roles are distinct, and understanding the difference can help businesses choose smarter.

What’s a Payment Gateway?

A Payment Gateway is the tech engine. It securely transfers customer payment data to the bank and returns authorization. It doesn’t hold money — just transmits information securely.

What’s a Payment Aggregator?

A Payment Aggregator (PA) does the heavy lifting. It:

Onboards merchants

Collects payments

Ensures KYC/AML compliance

Settles money into merchants' bank accounts It’s licensed by the RBI and responsible for managing the financial flow.

Why Both Matter

They work best together — a Payment Gateway powers the tech, while the Payment Aggregator manages the end-to-end experience. Businesses often rely on aggregators who bundle in the gateway functionality for a seamless process.

Want to dive deeper? Read the full breakdown on Worldline India

[nbfcadvisory]

Payment Aggregator vs Payment Gateway

This article explains the core differences between payment aggregators and payment gateways, especially in the context of NBFCs (Non-Banking Financial Companies).

Payment Gateway: A tech tool that encrypts and authorizes online transactions, connecting customers, merchants, and banks. Suitable for large enterprises needing control over payments.

Examples: Razorpay, PayU, CCAvenue, PayPal.

Payment Aggregator: Allows multiple businesses to accept payments under one master merchant account without needing individual bank accounts. Ideal for startups and SMEs due to fast onboarding and lower compliance.

Examples: Instamojo, Cashfree, Paytm for Business.

Key Differences:

Merchant account: Required for gateways, not for aggregators.

Onboarding: Faster with aggregators.

Settlement: Direct with gateways; routed via aggregators.

Compliance: Aggregators manage KYC and RBI norms.

Best use: Gateways for large NBFCs, aggregators for small NBFCs and startups.

NBFC Benefits:

Easier EMI collection and loan disbursement

Faster onboarding via eMandates and KYC

Reduced operational burden

Better compliance with RBI guidelines

Access to analytics, dashboards, and APIs

Choosing the Right Option:

Choose a gateway for control and existing infrastructure.

Choose an aggregator for speed and simplicity.

Considerations Before Choosing:

Check for RBI approval, PCI-DSS compliance, settlement timelines, MDR fees, and technical support.

Regulatory Notes: RBI mandates registration, KYC, card tokenization, and escrow accounts for aggregators to ensure transparency and reduce fraud.

Conclusion: Both tools are crucial for NBFCs’ digital growth. Payment gateways provide secure processing, while aggregators simplify operations and compliance. The choice depends on business scale and regulatory needs.

Know More: Payment Aggregator vs Payment Gateway

[letspepaymentgateway]

Artificial Intelligence, aka AI, is playing a vital role in fraud prevention for Payment Gateways today. There are many tools updated in the market used to make payment gateway services more secure daily. Hackers are becoming advanced and there is always a threat that they may crack the code to break the latest technology used in fraud prevention for the payment gateways. This generated the need to update the AI technology used for the prevention of payment gateways.

[webpayspg]

Why Payment Aggregators Fall Short for High-Risk Merchants

Finding the right payment setup is challenging for high-risk sectors. This blog explores why payment aggregators fall short for high-risk merchants, covering problems like account freezes, payout delays, vague policies, and limited scalability. It helps merchants in industries like nutraceuticals, gaming, adult, or CBD understand the risks and choose better alternatives. Read the whole blog to know more.

[enterslices]

RBI Guidelines for E-Wallets

In a world where convenience reigns supreme, digital wallets have become our trusty sidekicks, making transactions as easy as a swipe or a tap. But with great power comes great responsibility! Enter the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)—the guardian of financial integrity and consumer protection in India. E-wallets, or digital wallets, have revolutionized how we make payments. These virtual wallets have made our lives easier and more efficient, from buying groceries to paying bills. However, with the increasing popularity of e-wallets, there has been a growing concern for security and consumer protection.

Introduction to e-wallets

The digital revolution has transformed how we handle money, making transactions faster and more convenient than ever. Enter e-wallets—your pocket-sized solution for managing finances with a tap or click. But what exactly is the complete form of an e-wallet? It's not just about convenience; it's also about security and compliance, especially in a rapidly evolving market like India’s.

With numerous options available, from mobile apps to online platforms, digital wallets in India have quickly become a staple for everyday transactions. However, as this tech-savvy landscape grows, so does the need for regulation. This is where the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) steps in with its guidelines designed to ensure safe practices within this aggregator business framework.

Understanding these RBI guidelines is beneficial and essential for both users and companies operating in this space. Let’s dive deeper into what these regulations entail and how they shape our experience with prepaid payments through e-wallets.

Importance of RBI guidelines for e-wallets

RBI guidelines for e-wallets play a crucial role in ensuring the safety and reliability of digital transactions. With the rapid growth of digital wallets in India, these regulations help maintain consumer trust.

They establish a framework that protects users from fraud and misuse. By mandating Know Your Customer (KYC) processes, RBI ensures that only verified individuals can use these services.

Moreover, RBI transaction limits prevent excessive financial exposure, safeguarding consumers and service providers against potential losses.

The security measures required under these guidelines create a robust infrastructure for online payments and promote safe practices among businesses operating in the payment aggregator market.

Overview of RBI guidelines for e-wallets

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has laid crucial guidelines to regulate e-wallets, ensuring a secure and reliable digital payment ecosystem. One key area is the Know Your Customer (KYC) requirement. Users must verify their identities, which helps combat fraud and money laundering.

Transaction limits are another essential aspect. The RBI stipulates caps on how much can be loaded or transacted through these wallets, promoting responsible spending and minimizing risk for users.

Security measures mandated by the RBI include encryption protocols and two-factor authentication. Such steps enhance user trust in digital wallets while safeguarding sensitive information from breaches.

These guidelines aim to foster a safer environment for both consumers and businesses, ultimately driving growth in the burgeoning sector of prepaid payments across India’s digital landscape.

KYC requirements

KYC, or Know Your Customer, is a critical aspect of e-wallet regulations. It ensures that financial services are safe and secure for users.

Under RBI guidelines, every user must provide valid identification before using an e-wallet. This typically includes documents like Aadhaar cards, passports, or driver's licenses. The goal is to verify the identity of each customer and minimize fraud risks.

Moreover, businesses must maintain updated records of their customers' information. Regular audits may be conducted to ensure compliance with KYC norms.

This process not only protects users but also enhances transparency in transactions. By adhering to KYC requirements, digital wallets in India can build trust among consumers and improve overall market stability.

As the popularity of prepaid payment instruments grows in the aggregator business sector, strict KYC measures become even more vital for maintaining credibility within this evolving landscape.

Transaction limits

Transaction limits are a crucial aspect of e-wallet functionality. They dictate how much money users can send or receive within a specified timeframe. For many, this is reassuring as it helps prevent fraud and misuse.

Under the RBI guidelines, these limits vary based on user verification levels. A fully verified account may enjoy higher transaction thresholds compared to an unverified one. This tiered approach encourages users to complete their KYC processes for enhanced benefits.

Such restrictions not only protect consumers but also contribute to maintaining financial stability in the digital payments ecosystem. Companies must ensure they adhere to these regulations while offering competitive services that meet consumer needs.

Security measures

Security measures play a crucial role in the realm of e-wallets. With increasing digital transactions, safeguarding user data is paramount.

One significant measure is end-to-end encryption. This technology ensures that sensitive information remains confidential during transmission. Only authorized parties can access it.

Two-factor authentication adds another layer of protection. Users verify their identity through multiple methods, making unauthorized access more difficult.

Regular monitoring for suspicious activities also enhances security. E-wallet providers often utilize advanced algorithms to detect unusual patterns and flag potential fraud instantly.

Additionally, biometric security features like fingerprint scanning are gaining popularity. These provide users with a quick yet secure way to authorize transactions without relying solely on passwords.

Robust security protocols foster consumer trust in digital wallets across India’s evolving financial landscape, creating a safer environment for all participants.

Advantages of following RBI guidelines for e-wallets

Following RBI guidelines for e-wallets brings multiple advantages. For users, it enhances security and builds trust in the digital payments ecosystem. When stringent regulations safeguard transactions, customers feel more confident using these platforms.

Companies benefit as well. Compliance with RBI standards helps them avoid legal complications and penalties. This creates a stable environment for business operations and fosters growth within the aggregator business model.

In addition, adherence to Know Your Customer (KYC) norms improves risk management for companies. They can better understand their user demographics while minimizing fraudulent activities.

Conclusion

Adhering to RBI guidelines for a smooth and secure experience with e-wallets cannot be overstated. With the rise of digital wallets in India, users and companies must prioritize safety and compliance. The Reserve Bank of India has laid out clear directives to protect consumers while fostering innovation in fintech.

[merchantservices444]

What is the Difference Between Bank Fees and Merchant Fees?

[kenresearch1]

UAE Debt Collection Market is Expected to Reach More Than AED 5Bn by 2027 Owing to Rise in digital collection techniques and Improvement in UAE legal system related to debt collection, bankruptcy and insolvency: Ken Research

Buy Now

UAE Debt Collection Market Ecosystem

Tahseel, First Solution Management Service are the market leaders in UAE Debt Collection Market; the market is highly fragmented consisting of many players. The UAE Debt Collection Market is composed of many players which are operating across the borders and not just within the UAE.

 Key Market Findings:

Digital collections are being extensively used which leverages analytics to make the process more

Collection agents are being trained to equip them with latest technology and to adept them to various consumer situations for providing more feasible solutions.

The industry is slowly becoming more customer-centric in its approach.

Interested to Know More about this Report, Request for a sample report

IT Policies and Proper Documentation: Companies are maintaining proper documentation and proof for all debt provided by them to corporates and individuals. This makes it much easier for debt collection agencies to recover the debt in case of a default both amicably and legally as well through payment order method. Collection companies which provide settlement plans to debtors have start taking post-dated cheques as a proof for future payment. Changing IT policies require companies to maintain complete confidentiality of client information due to threat of data breach. All this factors will provide more growth to collection industry.

Emphasis on NLP Techniques: Collection agencies are extensively using various speech analytics tools to record and analyse customer conversations. This enables to maintain security and gain insights into client expectations. In addition, the information gathered can further be used for training of employees adapting them to different situations while negotiating and hence, improving their performance which would act as a key growth driver for debt collection companies.

Favorable Changes in UAE Legal System: The new legal system at UAE makes it possible to recover debts via court in merely within 7 days if all the documents are readily available. The new Bankruptcy law also provides safety for debtors and changes the shape of debt collection industry. Ultimately, act as catalysts for the industry.

Analysts at Ken Research in their latest publication- “UAE Debt Collection Market Outlook to 2027- Characterized by fierce competition and high growth prospects” by Ken Research provides a comprehensive analysis of the potential of the debt collection market in UAE. Rise in digital collection techniques and increasing use of AI and ML for recovery predictions are expected to contribute to the market growth over the forecast period.

UAE debt collection market is expected to grow at a robust CAGR over the forecasted period 2022-2027.

Key Segments Covered

Segmentation by Segment

Non-Finance

Finance

Insurance

Segmentation by Type of Firm

Debt Collection Agency

Law Firm

Segmentation by Age of Firm:

0 to 10 yrs

10 to 20 yrs

20 to 30 yrs

Segmentation by Geographical Presence

Abu Dhabi

Dubai

Fujairah

Sharjah

Ajman

Umm Al-Quwain

Ras Al-Khaimah

Sub-segmentation of insurance segment & financing segment

Sub-segmentation of insurance segment:

Motor & Transportation

Property/Fire

Liability & Others

Sub-segmentation of financing segment:

Real State

Personal

Financial institution

Services

Manufacturing

Trade

Others

Visit this Link :- Request for custom report

Key Target Audience

Existing Debt Collection Companies

Law Firms

Financing Companies

Non-Financing Companies

Insurance Companies

Debt Collection & Management software providers

Government Agencies

Finance Consultants

Others

Time Period Captured in the Report:

Historical Period: 2017-2022

Base Year: 2022

Forecast Period: 2022–2027

Companies Covered:

SUPPLY SIDE:

Debt Collection Companies

Tahseel

CMS

Aman Debt Collection

First Solution

Credit Recovery

AW Holding

Bilkish

Derby Group of Companies

Alpha Debt Collection

Fort Equity

Quick Action

ATDC

com

ALQADA

Law firms/Debt Collection

Taswiyeh

ASKTHELAW

HHS LAWYERS

DUBAI DEBT RECOVERY

STA

AE

AL ROWAAD

AL SAFAR

BIN EID

Regulatory Bodies and Judiciary

Central Bank of the UAE

Judicial Department

DEMAND SIDE:

Insurance companies

Etihad Credit Insuranc

Atradiuse

CIGNA

COFACE

PACIFIC PRIME

MetLIFE

ACE

Emirates RE

Financing companies

Emirates NBD

ADCB

DUBAI FIRST

Mashreq

Commercial Bank of Dubai

Dubai Islamic Bank

HSBC

RAKBANK

ADIB

FAB

CITYBANK

Non-Finance companies

Etisalat

Emircom

Etihad Water and Electricity

Abu Dhabi Distribution Companies

Emaar

Nakheel

Lufthansa

Choithrams

Asian Paints

Majid UL Futaim

Naseej

Key Topics Covered in the Report                            

Global Debt Collection Market Overview

Ecosystem of UAE Debt Collection Market – Demand and Supply Side

Value Chain Analysis – Amicable Settlement and Litigation Settlement

Market Size and Segmentation of Debt Collection Industry in UAE, 2017-2022

UAE Debt Collection Market Industry Analysis

Software used in UAE Debt Collection Market

Market Shares of Major Debt Collection Companies in UAE on the basis of Debt Collected, 2022

Competitive Analysis

Future Outlook and Projections, 2022-2027

For More Insights On Market Intelligence, Refer to the Link Below: –

UAE Debt Collection Market Outlook to 2027

Related Reports by Ken Research: –

KSA Debt Collection Market Outlook to FY’2026

[covid-safer-hotties]

If you've got a couple bucks to spare, consider checking out my Patreon.

For as little as $2 a month, you can support the aggregation and information efforts I make every day. I need to figure out how to reward the different tiers a bit better, but for now your monthly payment gets you early warning for social events and game nights as well as unfettered access to my crisis mitigation skills if you ever have an in-home exposure (say your partner or housemate gets infected: I've gotten through one such infection without myself getting infected, and I'm happy to share my experience if and when you have a crisis). Thanks to anyone who thinks about supporting me!

[haodatech]

Top 10 Payment Orchestration Platforms for Seamless Transactions in 2025

As digital transactions evolve rapidly, businesses are looking for smarter, faster, and more flexible ways to manage payments. That’s where payment orchestration platforms come into play—connecting multiple payment gateways, improving approval rates, automating failover, and providing a unified system to streamline the entire payment experience.

In 2025, the need for seamless transaction flow is more critical than ever. Whether you're an eCommerce brand, SaaS provider, or enterprise business, having a robust payment orchestration system can directly impact your revenue, customer satisfaction, and global reach.

Here are the top 10 payment orchestration platforms leading the market in 2025:

1. Stripe Connect

Stripe Connect remains a favorite among developers and platforms. It offers built-in support for multi-party payments, robust APIs, fraud detection, and global scalability. Its ability to handle everything from payouts to compliance makes it a go-to solution.

2. Adyen

Adyen offers end-to-end payment orchestration with intelligent routing, local acquiring, and rich analytics. Its unified commerce solution helps retailers manage in-store and online payments effortlessly across geographies.

3. HaodaTech

HaodaTech is rising fast as a reliable payment orchestration development in UAE, US, Malaysia, India  especially for businesses in India and emerging markets. Known for its customizable solutions, HaodaTech allows businesses to integrate multiple gateways, automate transaction routing, manage real-time analytics, and ensure high success rates. With a strong focus on security, scalability, and affordability, it's a perfect fit for growing businesses, fintech startups, and enterprises looking to build tailored payment flows.

4. Rapyd

Rapyd is a global platform that offers local payment methods in over 100 countries. From collecting payments to payouts and cross-border FX handling, Rapyd simplifies global commerce for online platforms.

5. Checkout.com

With flexible APIs and enterprise-grade security, Checkout.com is a powerful orchestration solution. It allows businesses to optimize payment routing, reduce friction, and maintain full control over their payment stack.

6. Payoneer

Payoneer is ideal for businesses with cross-border transactions. It offers virtual accounts, global receiving solutions, and integrates seamlessly with marketplaces, making it ideal for freelancers, exporters, and eCommerce sellers.

7. Worldpay (by FIS)

Worldpay provides enterprise-level payment orchestration with tools like dynamic routing, recurring billing, and fraud protection. Its long-standing industry reputation makes it a strong contender in 2025.

8. CellPoint Digital

Popular among travel and retail brands, CellPoint Digital enables intelligent routing, real-time optimization, and transaction analytics. It’s built to reduce failed payments and boost conversions.

9. Primer

Primer provides a no-code infrastructure for payment workflows. Businesses can connect multiple tools—from fraud protection to payment gateways—using a visual builder, making it a favorite among startups.

10. Paddle

Designed for SaaS companies, Paddle combines subscription billing, tax compliance, and payment orchestration under one platform. It’s especially beneficial for global software businesses.

Final Thoughts

The future of payments lies in flexibility and control. Whether you want to integrate multiple gateways, improve success rates, or expand globally, these orchestration platforms provide the infrastructure you need.

For businesses seeking a custom-built orchestration system, HaodaTech offers the perfect blend of innovation, support, and affordability.

Ready to streamline your payments?Visit www.haodatech.in or call 1800 202 3306 to get started!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The credit card fee victory is a defeat

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me next weekend (Mar 30/31) in ANAHEIM at WONDERCON, then in Boston with Randall "XKCD" Munroe (Apr 11), then Providence (Apr 12), and beyond!

The headline was pure David and Goliath: America's small businesses had finally triumphed in their 20-year litigation campaign against Visa and Mastercard over price-gouging on fees, and V/MC were going to cough up $30B as reparations:

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/26/economy/visa-mastercard-swipe-fee-settlement/index.html

But if you actually delve into that settlement, the victory gets very hollow indeed. Here's the figure that didn't make the headline: as a part of this settlement, the sky-high fees merchants pay to process your credit-card transaction are going up by 25%:

https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2024/03/the-proposed-credit-card-interchange-settlement.html

The payments system is a hellish complex, rotten cartel, dominated by a handful of firms who have raised their already-high fees by 40% since the start of covid:

https://prospect.org/power/2023-02-07-small-business-credit-card-fees/

These companies who take 2-5% out of virtually every dollar exchange in the American company are wildly profitable, but their aggregate profits are still much lower than the profits of all the merchants they prey upon. More: the combined market capitalization of every company that accepts credit-cards is orders of magnitude larger than the payment processing companies. If we're just talking about sheer economic muscle, the "Goliath" here is "all the companies" and the "David" is "the three companies that process payments for them."

So, how is it that these puny middlemen are able to run circles around this massive retail sector? To learn the answer, you need to consider the fine technical details of the lawsuit and the settlement. That's something few of us are capable of doing on our own, because – as is ever the case with finance – the whole system is wreathed in an enormous amount of performative complexity. It's what finance bros call "MEGO," for "My Eyes Glaze Over." Finance loves things that are made complicated so that they'll be hard to understand – because so many of us will assume that they are hard to understand because they are complicated and just "leave it to the experts."

Thankfully, not all of the experts are on the side of finance. When I want a cheat-sheet for the lies buried in Uber's balance sheet, I look to Hubert Horan:

https://horanaviation.com/publications-uber

And when I want to understand credit markets, I go to Adam Levitin and his co-authors at the indispensable Credit Slips blog – and the Credit Card Interchange Settlement is no exception:

https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2024/03/the-proposed-credit-card-interchange-settlement.html

Formally, the fight over credit-card fees is over "interchange fees" – the fees charged to a merchant's bank by Visa and Mastercard. But of course, these fees are passed on to the merchants. If you've ever shopped for a credit-card, you'll know that some cards offer massive rebates to consumers (especially wealthy consumers with great credit scores). These gifts don't come out of V/MC's bottom-line: every time you use one of those Platinum/Emerald/Unobtanium cards, V/MC levy an even higher interchange fee. So ultimately, when a wealthy customer with a "good" credit card shops at a merchant, the merchant ends up paying more to process their payment.

But merchants aren't allowed to charge that back to their customers – and that's the crux of the lawsuit. It's why American merchants pay the highest interchange fees in the developed world.

Enter the $30b settlement. Under its terms, average interchange fees will go down by 7 basis-points (0.07%) over the next five years, while all fees will go down by 0.04% over three years – a reduction of about $3b/year. Additionally: merchants will now be able to levy small, extremely limited surcharges based on either the type of card or the card brand (e.g., "We charge a fee for Visa" or "We charge a fee for gold cards"). If merchants are able to levy these fees and figure out how to max them out, they stand to make another 3b/year.

In other words, the $30b settlement comes from $15b in guaranteed savings and $15b in possible savings, for just five years – while V/MC will continue to charge more than $100b/year in interchange fees.

This litigation began in 2005, with merchants outraged over the sky-high average interchange fee of 1.75%. Today, after the settlement, those fees have climbed by 25%, to 2.19% – and they'll start climbing again after just five years. A 20-year fight over high fees resulted in a victory in which the fees are even higher.

How did this happen? Levitin gives us some tantalyzing hints. Over the two decades of litigation, the credit card cartel were able to peel off different groups of merchants and settle with them separately. Some of those settlements were vacated by courts, and other ones are still pending, but fundamentally, the merchants were not unified in the way the credit-card companies are.

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Hundreds of thousands – millions? – of merchants are unable to coordinate strategies in the way that just two credit-card companies can. Indeed, when you have hundreds of thousands of companies, that represents many, many different kinds of businesses, each of which has different kinds of customers and different labor, inventory, cash-flow and profitability specifics.

But as an industry grows more concentrated, all the firms within that industry converge on a single, homogeneous style of operations. Walmart operates very differently from the mom-and-pop shops it forced out with predatory pricing and sweetheart deals with wholesalers – but Costco, Walmart and Sam's Club are all remarkably similar to one another. As a shopper, that means that if have needs that aren't well-served by a big box store, you're out of luck – and it means that a credit-card settlement that works for Walmart will probably work equally well for Costco and Sam's Club.

Think of the mobile phone duopoly of Apple/Google. These two "competitors" have nearly identical ways of dealing with their suppliers – both charging 30% fees for processing payments (and yes, that's a racket that makes Visa/Mastercard look like pikers). These two "competitors" are also one another's most important business-partners: the single largest transaction either company makes every year is with the other – the $26B that Google pays Apple every year to be the Ios and Safari default search engine, through which Apple exposes every one of its customers to Google's incredibly invasive, continuous surveillance.

Speaking of surveillance: consider the surveillance advertising duopoly of Google/Facebook. Not only do these companies extract the nearly identical (sky-high) fees from advertisers and dribble out the nearly identical (miserly) payouts to publishers – they also illegally collude to rig the advertising market, dividing it between themselves:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue

The economists' term for this is the "collective action problem." It's a problem we want corporations to have. The problem with monopolies and cartels isn't merely that they're "too big to fail" and "too big to jail" – it's that a handful of companies can form a cartel to capture their regulators:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

The surveillance industry is unified; the surveilled are not. The rewards from surveillance are concentrated. The costs of surveillance are diffused. This is as good a working definition of corruption as you could ask for: conduct that produces concentrated gains and diffuse losses.

Our generations-long failure to enforce antitrust law created monopolies that rippled out through whole supply chains. As David Dayen described in his brilliant 2021 book Monopolized, it's the story of US health industry:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/29/fractal-bullshit/#dayenu

First, pharma companies merged to monopoly and started to gouge hospitals on drug prices. So hospitals formed regional monopolies that could resist these pricing demands – and then turned around and started gouging insurance companies. So insurance companies merged, too. Every corner of health-care is now a monopoly or a cartel – from pharmacy benefit managers to hospital beds:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/05/hillrom/#baxter-international

The only parts of the industry that aren't concentrated are the parts that can't concentrate: patients and health-care workers. The monopolized health care sector reaps the concentrated gains, and the patients and workers pay the diffused costs. Those costs are diffused, but they're still substantial – a literal matter of life or death:

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/investors-private-equity-nonprofit-nursing-homes-quality-of-care/

Monopolization lets businesses solve their collective action problem, so they can run circles around less concentrated, less organized sectors. But concentration also lets companies solve the collective action problem of lobbying governments and capturing their regulators. A concentrated industry can maintain message discipline in front of regulators and legislators. A diffuse sector will always have credible defectors who'll say, "No, we can absolutely function with tighter controls – my competition is bullshitting you and I have receipts to prove it."

The surveillance industry's massive concentration is why America can't seem to pass a federal consumer privacy law. The last consumer privacy law Congress passed was 1988's Video Privacy Protection Act, a law that bans video-store clerks from telling anyone which VHS cassettes you're renting. But federal law is effectively silent on every other kind of invasion �� your ISP, your TV, your car, your phone, your medical implant, your dishwasher and your smart speaker can all harvest your data, charge you for the privilege and sell it to anyone, for any purpose.

That silence didn't come cheap: whenever Congress moots a privacy law, the concentrated surveillance industry is all on the same page for the ensuing lobbying blitz, which it can afford thanks to the massive profits that an industry reaps when it eliminates "wasteful competition."

This is a point that leftists sometimes miss about competition law. The point of competition isn't merely to discipline companies into finding more efficient ways to run their businesses so that their prices go down. Sure, that's sometimes a good thing for the public.

But there's plenty of commercial conduct that we don't want to improve – rather, we want to extinguish that conduct. We don't want more efficient commercial surveillance – we want no commercial surveillance.

Without competition, an industry can outmaneuver the government. Think of IBM: the DOJ sued IBM for antitrust violations from 1970 to 1982. For 12 consecutive years, IBM spent more on lawyers to fight the DOJ's Antitrust Division than the DOJ spent on all the lawyers it employed to fight every antitrust violation in the country. IBM literally outspent the US government, year after year, for 12 years! That let them delay the DOJ's breakup long enough for Ronald Reagan to be elected, and then Reagan dropped the suit.

This doesn't just effect customers for a monopoly's products – it also (and especially) effects the workers for that monopoly. When employers don't have to compete for labor, they can pay workers less and save money they might otherwise have to pay for benefits and workplace safety. Those additional profits can be plowed into lobbying against pro-union laws, and to pay the eye-watering sums charged by scumbag union-busting law firms.

Look at the companies who've gone to the Supreme Court to get the National Labor Review Board abolished: these are giant corporations from heavily concentrated sectors with little competition to erode their profits. And while Tesla, Trader Joe's and Amazon all have very different businesses, they're all similar enough that none of them sees an advantage to courting workers by offering a unionized shop:

https://newrepublic.com/article/179165/musk-supreme-court-nlrb-labor

It's not just leftists who fail to grasp the relationship between competition and the ability of regulators to do their job. Libertarians miss this, too. Even if you're a fully Fountainhead-poisoned freedom-to-contract hobgoblin, you still want a government that can enforce those contracts and defend the property rights they invoke. For a government to force a corporation to abide by its contractual obligations, that government has to be more powerful than the corporation it is charged with policing. Which means that however large you're willing to let a monopoly or cartel grow, you're going to have to tolerate a government that's even larger:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/05/small-government/

The "$30b win" for America's merchants is, in fact, a loss. 20 years of litigation over high fees, and the fees are now much higher. But that loss is surely unevenly distributed. Walmart and Amazon and other retail giants are going to be able to bargain for all kinds of off-the-books rebates, promotions, and other sweetheart deals, meaning that they'll have even more unfair advantages over smaller, more disorganized retailers. That means more of those mom-and-pops will vanish, leaving shoppers with less choice and higher prices – and workers with less choice and lower wages.

The lesson of 40 years of pro-monopoly policy couldn't be clearer: you can either have an economy that is regulated by lawmakers who are at least nominally transparent and democratically accountable, or you can have an economy regulated by totally unaccountable and opaque monopolists. Fail to do the former, and you will always end up with the latter.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/28/concentrated-benefits/#diffuse-harms

[canmom]

Hypothetical Decentralised Social Media Protocol Stack

if we were to dream up the Next Social Media from first principles we face three problems. one is scaling hosting, the second is discovery/aggregation, the third is moderation.

hosting

hosting for millions of users is very very expensive. you have to have a network of datacentres around the world and mechanisms to sync the data between them. you probably use something like AWS, and they will charge you an eye-watering amount of money for it. since it's so expensive, there's no way to break even except by either charging users to access your service (which people generally hate to do) or selling ads, the ability to intrude on their attention to the highest bidder (which people also hate, and go out of their way to filter out). unless you have a lot of money to burn, this is a major barrier.

the traditional internet hosts everything on different servers, and you use addresses that point you to that server. the problem with this is that it responds poorly to sudden spikes in attention. if you self-host your blog, you can get DDOSed entirely by accident. you can use a service like cloudflare to protect you but that's $$$. you can host a blog on a service like wordpress, or a static site on a service like Github Pages or Neocities, often for free, but that broadly limits interaction to people leaving comments on your blog and doesn't have the off-the-cuff passing-thought sort of interaction that social media does.

the middle ground is forums, which used to be the primary form of social interaction before social media eclipsed them, typically running on one or a few servers with a database + frontend. these are viable enough, often they can be run with fairly minimal ads or by user subscriptions (the SomethingAwful model), but they can't scale indefinitely, and each one is a separate bubble. mastodon is a semi-return to this model, with the addition of a means to use your account on one bubble to interact with another ('federation').

the issue with everything so far is that it's an all-eggs-in-one-basket approach. you depend on the forum, instance, or service paying its bills to stay up. if it goes down, it's just gone. and database-backend models often interact poorly with the internet archive's scraping, so huge chunks won't be preserved.

scaling hosting could theoretically be solved by a model like torrents or IPFS, in which every user becomes a 'server' for all the posts they download, and you look up files using hashes of the content. if a post gets popular, it also gets better seeded! an issue with that design is archival: there is no guarantee that stuff will stay on the network, so if nobody is downloading a post, it is likely to get flushed out by newer stuff. it's like link rot, but it happens automatically.

IPFS solves this by 'pinning': you order an IPFS node (e.g. your server) not to flush a certain file so it will always be available from at least one source. they've sadly mixed this up in cryptocurrency, with 'pinning services' which will take payment in crypto to pin your data. my distaste for a technology designed around red queen races aside, I don't know how pinning costs compare to regular hosting costs.

theoretically you could build a social network on a backbone of content-based addressing. it would come with some drawbacks (posts would be immutable, unless you use some indirection to a traditional address-based hosting) but i think you could make it work (a mix of location-based addressing for low-bandwidth stuff like text, and content-based addressing for inline media). in fact, IPFS has the ability to mix in a bit of address-based lookup into its content-based approach, used for hosting blogs and the like.

as for videos - well, BitTorrent is great for distributing video files. though I don't know how well that scales to something like Youtube. you'd need a lot of hard drive space to handle the amount of Youtube that people typically watch and continue seeding it.

aggregation/discovery

the next problem is aggregation/discovery. social media sites approach this problem in various ways. early social media sites like LiveJournal had a somewhat newsgroup-like approach, you'd join a 'community' and people would post stuff to that community. this got replaced by the subscription model of sites like Twitter and Tumblr, where every user is simultaneously an author and a curator, and you subscribe to someone to see what posts they want to share.

this in turn got replaced by neural network-driven algorithms which attempt to guess what you'll want to see and show you stuff that's popular with whatever it thinks your demographic is. that's gotta go, or at least not be an intrinsic part of the social network anymore.

it would be easy enough to replicate the 'subscribe to see someone's recommended stuff' model, you just need a protocol for pointing people at stuff. (getting analytics such as like/reblog counts would be more difficult!) it would probably look similar to RSS feeds: you upload a list of suitably formatted data, and programs which speak that protocol can download it.

the problem of discovery - ways to find strangers who are interested in the same stuff you are - is more tricky. if we're trying to design this as a fully decentralised, censorship-resistant network, we face the spam problem. any means you use to broadcast 'hi, i exist and i like to talk about this thing, come interact with me' can be subverted by spammers. either you restrict yourself entirely to spreading across a network of curated recommendations, or you have to have moderation.

moderation

moderation is one of the hardest problems of social networks as they currently exist. it's both a problem of spam (the posts that users want to see getting swamped by porn bots or whatever) and legality (they're obliged to remove child porn, beheading videos and the like). the usual solution is a combination of AI shit - does the robot think this looks like a naked person - and outsourcing it to poorly paid workers in (typically) African countries, whose job is to look at reports of the most traumatic shit humans can come up with all day and confirm whether it's bad or not.

for our purposes, the hypothetical decentralised network is a protocol to help computers find stuff, not a platform. we can't control how people use it, and if we're not hosting any of the bad shit, it's not on us. but spam moderation is a problem any time that people can insert content you did not request into your feed.

possibly this is where you could have something like Mastodon instances, with their own moderation rules, but crucially, which don't host the content they aggregate. so instead of having 'an account on an instance', you have a stable address on the network, and you submit it to various directories so people can find you. by keeping each one limited in scale, it makes moderation more feasible. this is basically Reddit's model: you have topic-based hubs which people can subscribe to, and submit stuff to.

the other moderation issue is that there is no mechanism in this design to protect from mass harassment. if someone put you on the K*w*f*rms List of Degenerate Trannies To Suicidebait, there'd be fuck all you can do except refuse to receive contact from strangers. though... that's kind of already true of the internet as it stands. nobody has solved this problem.

to sum up

primarily static sites 'hosted' partly or fully on IPFS and BitTorrent

a protocol for sharing content you want to promote, similar to RSS, that you can aggregate into a 'feed'

directories you can submit posts to which handle their own moderation

no ads, nobody makes money off this

honestly, the biggest problem with all this is mostly just... getting it going in the first place. because let's be real, who but tech nerds is going to use a system that requires you to understand fuckin IPFS? until it's already up and running, this idea's got about as much hope as getting people to sign each others' GPG keys. it would have to have the sharp edges sanded down, so it's as easy to get on the Hypothetical Decentralised Social Network Protocol Stack as it is to register an account on tumblr.

but running over it like this... I don't think it's actually impossible in principle. a lot of the technical hurdles have already been solved. and that's what I want the Next Place to look like.

[letspepaymentgateway]

Mobile payment gateways Solutions are growing in the business industry on a daily basis. If you are an entrepreneur or have an established business, you must be aware of the term payment gateway. 

[girlactionfigure]

israel.against.hamas

The Authority pays a monthly payment to any Israeli or Palestinian terrorist who has been convicted of carrying out an attack against Israeli Jews, or against the governing bodies of the State of Israel. The amount of the salary was defined in section 12 of the Palestinian government’s decision number 23 in 2010. According to the decision, the amount was determined according to the number of years the terrorist served in prison. In the first three years in prison, the salary is 1,400 NIS per month. In the fourth year, the salary increases to 2,000 NIS, and so on. From the 31st year, the prisoner receives 12,000 NIS per month. For comparison, the average salary in the PA is about 3,000 NIS . The payments continue even after the terrorist is released, and may reach millions of shekels in aggregate.

[corpzoventuresprivatelimited]

In today’s fast-paced world, digital transactions have become the lifeline of businesses. From online shopping to paying bills, customers expect seamless payments. But here’s the catch—only those with a Payment Aggregator (PA) License can legally handle such payments. If you're planning to start your own payment gateway business, this guide will walk you through every step to get that coveted PA license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

[bluesturngold]

findhelp.org is the biggest aggregator of resources in the US, and if you're in a bad way (or if something is on the horizon that would put you in a bad way) it's worth looking through

if you reach out to the american red cross or united way for something they can't handle in-house, there's a good chance the caseworker is using findhelp to locate potential avenues of assistance

input your ZIP code to filter out programs that don't service your location, then you can filter by several categories based on what you're looking for help with. not all of them will be relevant to your situation, but i live in a pretty rural area and it's got just under 1,900 program results between the 10 categories.

if you check a subcategory and don't see what you're looking for there, try other similar subcategories just to make sure you aren't missing out on something.

just based on the work i've done helping people the past few months, here are some things i've noticed:

if you have money to pay some bills but not all of them, turn off auto pay for everything, then you'll generally want to prioritize rent/mortgage and your cell phone bill if you can.

do everything you can to not lose your cell phone number, even if that means transferring it to a really cheap prepaid service. if you can't help but lose the number, please reach out to someone beforehand and let them know where you are and where they might be able to get ahold of you (i.e. by calling a local library you intend to frequent, contacting your email, etc.). i frequently speak with friends and family members trying to help someone they lost contact with and i cannot stress enough how few options there are for locating and reconnecting people. if you're using a free calling/texting app on your phone, please make note of the phone number someone can call you back at. (also, they tend to rely on strength of wi-fi signal for clear service, there's a possibility a slow public wi-fi connection could make the call choppy.)

seek help early. some programs have caps on how much money you can request (this can make getting enough money to catch up on multiple missed payments difficult), or will only help after you meet a certain need threshold (this sucks, the US is deeply broken), but it's better to know the criteria ahead of time so you can reach out to them again later. and if that's not a requirement for the resource you reach out to, even better.

a lot of programs are likely to have turnaround times longer than you would like, and very few places have different tiers of urgency. if you expect to get an eviction notice or a utility shutoff notice, start looking for assistance ASAP, because if your landlord gives you a week to pay or get out, sometimes processing your application with a resource can take that whole week.

on that note, here's a resource for getting the gist of your state/territory's eviction laws: https://www.lsc.gov/initiatives/effect-state-local-laws-evictions/lsc-eviction-laws-database just in case you're being evicted unfairly, and here's guidance on how to deal with eviction: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/housing/housing-insecurity/help-for-renters/what-to-do-if-youre-facing-eviction/

have exact dates and numbers, always keep record of the bills that are unpaid, whether it's emails, screenshots of online payment portals saved to your phone, or paper bills

it's demoralizing if you reach out to a bunch of places and they can't help. however, you should keep reaching out while you're still in a position where you can. the more people you talk to, the more likely you are to find someone especially knowledgeable who can point you in the right direction, because the people you reach out to will vary so widely in terms of expertise and ability to assist: you may reach people who are paid employees with very specific training and little else to offer beyond that, you may meet brand new volunteers who are eager to help but need time to ask others for advice, or you might talk to career employees/seasoned volunteers who can get you set on the right path even if their organization can't help personally

you should apply for state and federal resources also. some places will only help if you're turned down by the government, or government aid is insufficient, so that's always a good avenue to try first.