Apple and Twint are fighting hard to gain the upper hand in the race to establish their mobile payment service in Switzerland. The local solution has achieved one feat that makes it stand out already.

Twint, the payment app by Switzerland’s six biggest banks, hasn’t had an easy ride. The first experiences with the Swiss answer to Apple Pay and other global payment solutions was met by derision and caused frustration.

Paying for your groceries with Twint remains a tad more complicated than say with a contactless credit card – or cash, for that matter. But in the personal realm, the app has been well accepted, because it makes the payment of small amounts between people simple and smooth.

«Twinting»

Instead of having to divide a restaurant bill into several parts, people have taken to sending their share by Twint to their friends instead – or as they have taken to say by «twinting».

The service has become very familiar with the Swiss and the word-creation of «twinting» is the most obvious sign of this trend. Swiss skiing ace Beat Feuz acts as ambassador for the Swiss payment solution and has an important role to play in making Twint popular.

Banks Took the Right Decisions

Hence, Twint is turning into something that Hoover has achieved a long time ago. Its brand is being used as a verb for the activity the product was created for.

Whether Twint will survive for as long as Hoover, the Guillotine (named after French doctor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin) or even Google, remains to be seen. But the decision by Swiss banking to merge Twint and Paymit for sure looks to have been the right one.