I’ve been keeping an eye on the digital payments sector lately, and I feel that this wave is truly reshaping the entire financial ecosystem. From QR code payments to biometric recognition, and then to various contactless payment solutions, user acceptance is getting higher and higher. With the increasing penetration of smartphones and deeper internet adoption, the digital payments revolution isn’t something of the future anymore—it’s happening right now.

I’ve noticed that a few companies that perform especially strongly in this area are worth paying attention to. First is Mastercard. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the company is expanding its market, and this year its net revenue is expected to grow by 16%. They’re using AI to make many innovative applications, from fraud detection to payment processing optimization, and to personalized customer experiences—AI technology is integrated into five different business segments. Full-year revenue and profit growth are expected to be around 15.1% and 11.8%, respectively.

Visa is also performing quite steadily. Cross-border payment volume is growing, digital transactions continue to rise, and they are also pushing forward investments in AI and stablecoin infrastructure. More importantly, Visa has embedded AI and generative AI into more than 100 products, mainly for fraud prevention and cybersecurity. They invested $3.5 billion to rebuild their data platform, which can stop $40 billion worth of fraud attempts every year. Such technological accumulation makes them particularly competitive in the digital payments space. Revenue growth is expected to be 10.8% this year, and profit growth 12.3%.

PayPal is also accelerating. Venmo’s monetization efficiency is improving, the number of active user accounts is growing, and core peer-to-peer transfers and the PayPal checkout experience are maintaining a stable upward growth trend. They are applying AI at scale on their platform for fraud detection and personalized experiences, making the whole ecosystem increasingly efficient. Revenue growth is expected to be 4% this year, and profit growth 12.5%.

Capital One, meanwhile, has recently seen its credit card business scale jump after its acquisition of Discover Financial. In an environment with relatively high interest rates, demand for consumer loans remains fairly good, and net interest income is expected to grow by 31.5% this year. Overall, its revenue growth is expected to reach 34.4%, with profit growth hitting 21.9%.

As a consumer-focused bank holding company, Green Dot serves users directly through multi-channel distribution platforms, and it has also found its place in this digital payments revolution. They offer both consumer services, as well as B2B services and funds transfer services. Revenue growth is expected to be 20.3% this year.

All in all, the long-term growth potential of the digital payments sector is truly huge. Whether it’s payment infrastructure, software services, or virtual wallets, the entire ecosystem is evolving rapidly. If you’re considering setting up a long-term investment portfolio allocation, these companies with real competitive advantages in digital payments are definitely worth getting to know in depth.