MobilePay - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

Yes, in some way. The MobilePay app was launched in 2013 by a group of people within Danske Bank who had lots of app experience. At that time, we didn’t have any in-house app developers, so we used an external agency. But we indeed had the competence of building large scale financial products.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

We had high ambitions on building something very simple, but finance is a mine field of regulations and legal requirements. In that sense, the biggest challenge was finding the best mix between legal requirements and still making it effortless to send money.

_{MobilePay A/S}

About the Interviewee: Mr. Peter Gregersen is a Danish UX Designer that has conceptualized and designed financial apps since 2007. He works in Vipps MobilePay, the joint company of the dominating Nordic mobile payment solutions with more than 11m users.
About the Company: MobilePay empowers people across the Nordics to share life through joyful, easy transactions.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

I’m a sucker for utility apps that solves a specific purpose. That also shines through in the design of MobilePay. It’s kind of the classic idea behind apps although nowadays the trend is moving towards multipurpose super apps. A great example is Duolingo that cleverly uses smartphone features to build a great experience.

How long have you been working on this app?

Personally, I’ve been working on MobilePay since the early days in 2012 where we laid out the initial concept. Last year I had my 10th anniversary.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

I recall that”simple” was kind of a mantra. We really wanted to build an app that would push the limits for how simple you could register and start sending money. At that time many would think that e-banking apps already had simplified sending money. But it was still cumbersome to become a banking customer and entering banking account details was a hassle. We wanted money sending to be as simple as sending a SMS.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

Our users still love the simplicity of our app. In the Danish market it has become a term that something ‘should be as simple as MobilePay’. Keeping that focus over 10 years is only possible if everyone in the organization keeps that in mind. Along with the simplicity we’ve also managed to establish the strongest brand in Denmark. It makes me proud that we took something as boring as sending money and turned it into the most beloved brand.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

Currently, we are entering a merger with our Norwegian counterpart Vipps. Obviously, consolidation is on the radar now. But we also have high ambitions on enabling new features and going international. The Nordics have proven that there is a huge craving for simple mobile payments solutions. We want to show that this is not just a local phenomenon.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

I would urge new users to jump aboard in some of the additional features. We are giving away peer-to-peer transactions for free. But this business model is only sustainable if we manage to gain traffic on our income generating products like payments online and in shops, recurring payments and gifting.