Over the past two weeks there has been a lot of speculation about a possible connection between OmiseGO and Apple given the announcement from OmiseGO that big news was coming in September. That would be impressive but I think an association with Alibaba and Alipay would be even better and more likely. Yet, another possibility includes Tencent and honestly that would be just as impressive. The list goes on.
You've heard the reasoning for the speculation regarding ApplePay (Apple sticker, facial recognition interest with launch of iPhone 8 in Sept, old tweets from Omise considering a move toward ApplyPay, etc.)...
Now let's look at the reasoning for Alipay for contrast:
Omise was already involved in Fintech that allowed merchants to accept Alipay outside of China without needing to have a Chinese bank account.
-https://www.omise.co/alipay
Alibaba recently acquired Lazada for $1B. Lazada is Southeast Asia's number one online shopping and selling destination. It has been described as Alibaba's gateway to SEA.
-https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/12/rocketinternet-lazada/
Lazada currently accepts cash on delivery as a method of payment (which is inherently inefficient).
-https://www.lazada.com/
Alipay has been interested in AI facial recognition technology as well and is arguably further ahead than Apple.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d4d444d346b7a4d/share_p.html
OmiseGO provides a nice solution for increasing adoption and efficiency for Alibaba as they make their mark in the world's fastest growing internet market (SEA). It provides solutions for customers without bank accounts, merchants (to accept Alipay regardless of which country they reside in), innovative settlement (adding blockchain efficiency with plasma), and AI facial recognition.
Why this could be more beneficial than a relationship with Apple:
Alipay currently is the leader in online and mobile payments. It has 520,000,000 users and it is making its way to the US.
-https://intl.alipay.com/
-https://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2016/10/30/will-alipay-dominate-global-mobile-payments/#21ca8b1760af
Alipay has seen more than 1 billion transactions in a day. While Apple is a larger corporation, Alipay could be argued to be the current leader in online and mobile payments.
-https://www.techinasia.com/alibaba-alipay-1-billion-transactions
Yet, there is a similar argument for Tenpay:
Tenpay is Tencent's offering. Tencent and Alibaba have been playing a back and forth game for net worth (Tencent currently winning) and are also trying to make their mark in the emerging SEA online market.
-http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/03/investing/china-tencent-300-billion-company/index.html
-https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/22/alibaba-tencent-southeast-asia-game-of-thrones/
Tencent is China's biggest gaming firm. Note OmiseGO promises to make digital assets, such as gaming rewards, more usable/spendable.
https://www.pcgamesn.com/tencent-stock-pc-games
Tenpay has also been pursuing facial recognition technology.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leading-facial-recognition-platform-tencent-youtu-lab-smashes-records-in-megaface-facial-recognition-challenge-300439812.html
In the end, my point is this: Applepay would be awesome and they certainly want to capitalize on the SEA emerging market and utilization of facial recognition tech (and likely eventually make their entry into blockchain technology). However, Alipay and Tenpay both offer a near equal opportunity and they are not only looking at SEA but also moving into the US.
Omise has positioned itself very well by having an existing market in SEA, online payment solutions for customers and merchants, facial payment technology that is in use and now the cutting-edge blockchain technology (Plasma with Ethereum players backing OmiseGO) that could disrupt banks as the settlement layer.
I believe any of these partnerships above are realistic and no single one is needed (in fact there are other partnerships that could be seen as being just as impressive - Baidu-Paypal or Samsung for example).
Thank you for your time.
Disclaimer: Do not take this as trading advice. It is very speculative. It is meant as an argument against the "Apple be-all and end-all" case by bringing up other possibilities that are just as big players. I am invested in OMG currently and plan to invest further.