What kind of year did Allied Wallet have in 2015 Andy?
2015 was an amazing year for Allied Wallet. It's been full of innovation. We've been building and building, and our developers are working on bringing my ideas to life. We're bringing the future. It's also been a very successful year financially. Business has increased about 500% globally. So I guess you can say we've had a very good year, but just wait, this next year will be even better.
Where have been the big successes globally?
We've seen big success in Asia and North America. E-commerce is growing all over the world and merchants want to work with a global company. They want to be able to do business without being limited by borders. Shops on the street are taking their businesses online and they're able to grow their businesses and increase their profit. They're able to bring their products and services to people and countries they might not have ever been able to reach.
And how is business in the UK?
The business in the UK is good. We've seen a lot of success there over the years. I would definitely say that the business there is growing and e-commerce is becoming increasingly more popular, but it's growing slowly. I don't see any rapid growth going on over there just yet, but I think that will change.
What are the main Allied Wallet products targeting the UK market?
Our online payment solutions definitely suit the UK market very well for any e-commerce company. We have fantastic rates and the best service any merchant could ask for. But our biggest selling point is how fast we get you set up. Banks can take weeks, even months sometimes. Allied Wallet will get you set up in less than a day. Time is important. We all know time is money, and making a return on your investment is important. Paying employees and turning a profit is very important. Businesses don't have time to sit for weeks or months waiting to start accepting payments online - they can go out of business during that time if money isn't coming in. Allied Wallet will get you processing faster and easier. We also have a new pre-paid Allied Wallet chip and pin card and a mobile point-of-sale, chip and pin device that we're about to release, that will have state of the art security and the best POS mobile software available. It's an amazing product and it's going to revolutionise payments for a lot of people.
Apple Pay - Big deal or just another competitor in a market full of them?
I don't think Apple Pay is a big deal. They've already seen a decline. I don't feel like it's being adopted as widely as they hoped. It's slowing down and probably going to get slower. I don't think they're going to dominate the market at all.
How are you dealing with the security aspect of transactions with Allied Wallet?
Security is very important at Allied Wallet. We're constantly building and improving security infrastructure. We have a dedicated security team that releases weekly updates, ensuring that we are always 110% on top of security and staying ahead of the hackers. Development is always moving forward on security innovations and releasing new internal products, so that our security systems are the very best. In our industry, keeping our merchants safe and keeping online shoppers safe is first priority. We make sure to work with that in mind at Allied Wallet.
Wow us with some stats?
Allied Wallet processes payments in 196 countries and 164 currencies worldwide, way more than any other processor. PayPal can't even do that much. We can pay out merchants straight into their bank accounts. We're a globally award-winning company, not only for our payment services, but for our company culture as well. We were just ranked as one of the top 10 fastest growing companies in Los Angeles for 2015. We have eight offices around the world servicing over 125 million users globally. We're one of the only companies that can enable
global payment processing in less than 12 hours. Global e-commerce sales are projected to reach $3.5 trillion annually by 2019 and we're planning to be a big part of that. If business owners want to be part of the worldwide success of e-commerce, they need to choose Allied Wallet.
Are you still living on a plane?
Always - but a bigger plane these days at least! I've got a new private jet in the fleet, G650. I spend about 200 days out of the year in the air, so it's nice to have a spacious and private environment so I can work. I'm constantly coming up with new ideas and working on innovating our products so I need all the resources available. It's important to me to be comfortable while I'm travelling, especially since I travel so much.
What is 2016 looking like in your industry?
2016 for Allied Wallet is looking like the future of the industry - we're going to do some very big things next year. If companies want to grow, they need to be on the new wave of digital innovation. Allied Wallet is releasing new products and services that will completely streamline and interconnect several aspects of the payment industry. Allied Wallet is in the digital transaction world. We're the masters of e-commerce. In 2016, we'll release several state-of-the-art solutions so that merchants can have more options and make bigger profits for their companies. 2016 is looking very successful. It will be a big year. And like I said, it will reveal the future of our industry - everyone in the world is going to have an Allied Wallet account.
