← Platforms & infrastructure
Critical node· Platforms & infrastructure · Critical anchor
Payment cards, Visa & Mastercard
Foster City, United States37.55°N 122.27°W
computed criticality17/100
reading
Outside China, Visa + Mastercard are a near-duopoly of card payments; UnionPay is <1% of global purchase volume once China is excluded
2024Fault line
Electronic payment for most of the world runs through two American networks, a control point so strategic that China (UnionPay) and Russia (Mir) built their own rails to escape it.
Actors
Visa
Mastercard
UnionPay (China)
American Express
Sources