SAN JOSE, Calif.—Cash still matters, and it won't go away anytime soon, according to the chief technology officer at PayPal.
Many companies are trying to create a digital payments economy, but they face stiff competition from regular currencies, according to Sri Shivananda, senior vice president and chief technology officer at PayPal.
"The competition is cash," Shivananda said. "It's not even, like, you're fighting for each other's volumes. It's actually cash."
Last year, a study from consulting firm Capgemini and bank BNP Paribas predicted that by 2020, people around the world would make about 726 billion transactions using digital payment technology. The study found that emerging markets are expected to drive the upward trend. Developments in new technologies such as contactless bank cards, wearable devices and augmented reality will drive cashless transactions in the future, according to the study, The Edge Markets noted.
“Still, it acknowledged that cash remained the main method of payment among users. In fact, other research findings and surveys have demonstrated that many around the world still prefer to use cash,” The Edge Markets said.
Last August, a PayPal study found cash was still king in Asia, with China being an outlier where majority of the respondents said they preferred using digital payments. The European Central Bank said in November that a majority of people in the Euro area used cash when paying for goods and services in 2016 — especially for small-value items below 15 euros ($17.62), The Edge Markets noted.