1 The competitors for visa and master card
Before mid-1980s, there are no directly competitors to Visa and MasterCard. Compared to the two cards, other card networks focus on different goals in various industries. By mid-1980s, with expand of new field, Visa and Master Card met challenge with American Express and Discover/Norvus.
2 the barriers and solutions to entry for new competitions
When new competition comes out, there are some challenges to overcome. The barriers for new competitions are divided into several areas:
1 networks
Network is the most important thing in the competitions. It is hard to break into mature market and build new networks. Building a strong relationship with merchants and customers will make success. It should persuade merchants to accept its card and make them become loyalty users in the future. The card service cannot cover all the brands and sometimes it depends on the word of mouth and commercial to advertise. Improving quality of services and making special plan will make sense. Moreover, the new comer could use other bridge and media such as banks to help it to extend the service. Sometimes it is necessary for new card company to pay higher fee to the banks to attract them to use their card. Moreover, some competitors would set barriers to the new comers and they should negotiate individually with ATM networks and banks to persuade them to use their service.
2 card-acceptance markets
2 satisfactions of customers
1 technology barriers
Because visa and master card has long history and build brand effect into market, the new comers should develop advanced technology to support the service. For example: