Kyle
A new startup has entered the mobile payment arena called PayDragon. PayDragon was founded by Hamilton Chang who also serves as the startups CEO. Chang and his team were also behind the QR code pioneer Paperlinks.
Chang soft launched the PayDragon app in Austin Texas at South By Southwest and decided to do its full launch in LA where the company is based. Chang has eliminated a lot of intense restaurant focused graphics and superfluous extras in the UI to offer an easy order, pay, get receipt transaction system on the mobile phone.
Customers who use PayDragon will order their food from the participating restaurant of their choice, pay for the food, and then get notified by push notification when the food is ready to be picked up. They can also elect to get a receipt sent back to their mobile phone. Chang elected to keep PayDragon as simple as possible and his feedback thus far has proven that point.
More after the break
“The merchants and the consumers were really happy [during the SXSW trial],” Chan said. “The number one feedback I got from consumers was that it’s simple, and the number one feedback I got from merchants was also that it’s simple. We felt like it really rung true for merchants and for consumers.”Chang told website betakit.
PayDragon also does away with lengthy menus and other customization options which Chang wasn’t sure whether the participating restaurants would like, however the ease and simplicity of PayDragon is what will be their key to success.
The restaurant side of the app is just as simple. An order comes up, the restaurant handles the order, clicks one box when it’s done and the customer is notified for pick up. Easy in, easy out.
While PayDragon is a simple app it also features gamification aspects that allow customers to earn reward points for the restaurants they most frequently eat at. Chang may also add the option down the road that gives customers an estimated wait time before they hit the order button so they can better plan out their lunch break.
PayDragon plans to expand to other areas where there is a high concentration of smartphone using professionals that will take advantage of their service. While he admits that there are other companies like Square, Paypal and the Intuit owned Aislebuyer, PayDragon offers a simpler product that allows customers to order their food in a couple of clicks.
Chang wouldn’t specify what the percentage is that they take off sales but it has to be around the industry standard 2.7% for them to survive.
source: Betakit
