While globally beat a millionaire bid to stay with a technology startup that promises great gains in the future, Visa and MasterCard play a separate game for the digital transformation of their business in Argentina.In effect, the brand of the two circles has already surpassed the score and promises to lead the advance of new forms of payment. Mastercard opened the score last year, when it launched the contactless cards, a chip-surpassing technology and magnetic stripe based on the following pillars:- The customer supports the card on the reader to pay, without having to deliver it to a third party.- The plastic has a chip with encrypted data that allows not to "clone" the card.- The operation does not require the presentation of the DNI. Neither the issuance of the coupon nor the signature of the client in operations of up to $ 1,000.- The cards can be "virtualized" in an electronic wallet, allowing to pay when placing the cell phone over the terminal.Within the Argentine banking, they give account of the local "backwardness" of the most used brand in the world."Mastercard last year lost a mandate to the entire region to migrate plastics to contactless, Visa has 'fallen asleep', it has only recently done so," iProUP points out to a high source from one of the country's most important private banks.The truth is that Mastercard's digital plan is underway for a while and the replacement of plastics is only a small part.The other example of his great commitment to the Argentine market consisted in interpreting the strong progress of the fintech during 2018. Such is the case that is the "preferred" card by these startups, such as Mercado Pago (in alliance with Banco Patagonia), Ualá and Wilobank . The latter, until incoporated contactless.]]In contrast, Visa was more timid in this sector and it was not until 2018 that it decided to join this boom with Brubank, the 100% digital bank founded by former Citibank Juan Bruchou.At full speedToday, MasterCard is the only contactless card in the market and has been playing a long time, beyond the imminent implementation of this technology by its competitor.In this sense, launched the "Contactless Week", a promotion that is repeated every month and offers up to 50% savings for those who pay under this modality in service stations, pharmacy chains and food stores, among other adhered businesses . And it is cumulative with other discounts."To introduce a new technology and induce a new behavior, we launch very aggressive promotions that attract attention, a huge jump in sales is registered, since the level of transactions is higher at the end of the promotion than at the beginning. residual that is sustained over time ", explains Martin Lang, Country Manager for Argentina of Mastercard.In dialogue with iProUP, the manager indicates that the next one will be to extend the service to debit cards and with prepaid balance. He also assures that they managed to create a "virtuous circle" with banks and businesses, since now they are "going to look for" to take advantage of the contactless advantages.In this crusade to extend the service, the company also takes advantage of the range of tools that promote digital transformation."We use all the power of Mastercard's platform with big data, we cross-referenced the information about which businesses were interested in our clients to have these benefits, and we leveraged that the cards with the terminals were" found ", explains Nicolás Ingaramo, Manager of Accounts of the company, to iProUP.Mastercard accumulates close to 500,000 "contactless" accounts in Argentina, a number that Lang still considers "low" for the tens of millions that make up its plastics park. From this, he is excited by the potential of the evolution of this modality."Migration to contactless shows a growth rate much higher than that recorded by the change of magnetic stripe to chip," says the manager.In addition, Ingaramo points out that this technology is available in all of the brand's products, from Platinum, Black and Gold, and in several of the companies that promote financial inclusion, such as Wilobank.This is another differential with respect to its competitor, since banks are giving priority to higher-income customers to automatically replace contactless Visa, while the rest of users must wait for renewal."Both in terminals and cards, we are very advanced, 2018 was the year of adoption, 2019, the replacement of plastics and the continuous improvement of the user experience in front of the terminal," adds Ingaramo.More to comeMastercard has more than a year of advantage with respect to Visa and American Express and does not hesitate to take advantage of it. While the latter are just introducing their contactless cards, the company of the two circles is already thinking about what is coming.Within their strategic plan, they aim to be the "hub" of electronic payments of their customers, beyond the QR, as they ensure that technology without contact will clearly be a superior proposal."Although it develops strongly, it is atomized: the QR of Argentina can only be used in this country," says Lang. And he contrasts: "Argentines used contactless in 65 countries, we have had tourists from 45 countries who took advantage of it here, which clearly speaks to their interoperability."In this sense, Ingaramo points out that this technology is a "critical point" in the path of digital convergence. And anticipates the possible arrival of the great international players of the mobile payments market."In Australia, Spain and the United Kingdom, telephone payments have a high popularity because contactless cards used to exist." This jump helps us to start thinking about how we are preparing the infrastructure, because today these terminals allow someone to pay with Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay, "he explains.Lang says that banks want to build their own wallet with the NFC system, the chip included in some phones of medium and high ranges that virtualize the card in an app. Although it clarifies that in the countries where the methods of payment of the bigtech exist, 90% of the transactions are still made with plastics."For mobile payment, we have a tokenization strategy, that is, the encryption of the number of the card in the mobile phone so that this information can not be read, it is a necessary step for the irruption of virtual wallets", remarks Ingaramo.In addition to this, Lang recognizes that the company is strongly committed to strengthening its platform and technology to be a protagonist in electronic commerce, since it projects that its use curve "will intersect with that of physical commerce next year or next."The digital strategy of the company, in addition, leaves no corner to explore. In fact, it pursues another goal so that all Argentines operate under the contactless system."An important factor in the industry is to incorporate the transport for the acceptance of the card instead of the SUBE.We want to integrate all the means of payment solutions in one place", anticipates iProUP.The giant woke upThe strong advance of Mastercard in Argentina ignited the warning lights in Visa International. In this regard, the company announced the arrival of its VisaNet payment network.This is leveraged in the possibility of "multiadrience". That is, the new POS equipment of Prisma and First Data may include VisaNet or other providers to process the collections. Both companies are expanding the installation of their devices in stores."In the near future, Visa users and businesses will access more sophisticated services, such as digital wallets, direct payments between people and new solutions, such as the use of tokens for connected devices," the company said a few days ago to iProUP .In this framework, VisaNet analyzes the implementation of charges from cell phones, cars and smart watches. The firm affirms to iProUP that even the appliances can be used to pay purchases in a non-contact manner.For example, an intelligent refrigerator can combine the VisaNet platform and the app of a supermarket for the user to order those foods as soon as they detect missing items, perform the operation through the screen of the appliance and receive them at home.Likewise, the company opened this platform globally to independent programmers to enable them to develop payment solutions that are "embedded" in any type of device connected to the Internet.The contactless revolution will reedit the fight between the most used payment terminals by the stores: LaPos, by Prisma; and POSNet, from the US First Data.It will also be the land chosen by Mastercard in its ambitious plan to be the main player in the transactional market of Argentina. For now, he was the first to give the initial kick and counts on his favvor with a wide advantage to achieve that content.