MobilePay will drop its name for Vipps in January

MobilePay will change its name to Vipps on 12 January, ending a brand that has become part of everyday language in Denmark, DR reports. The payment app will begin adopting a new smiley logo today.

More than 4.6 million people in Denmark use MobilePay, and the verb “mobilepaye” entered the Danish dictionary in 2014. Branding expert Eva Svavars, a partner at communications agency Lead Agency, called the rebrand a “wild exercise”, saying the company was giving up a valuable brand and a word it had helped create.

Svavars said the MobilePay name made sense when the app was new because it explained what the service did. Now that mobile and digital payments are familiar, she considers the name dated. She said the shift to a shared Nordic brand could make it easier to transfer money when travelling between countries.

The app was developed into a shared service with Norwegian payment app Vipps after the companies joined forces in 2022. By 2024, the app was the same across the Nordic region, except for its name and logo.

The company, now called Vipps MobilePay, says the latest changes are the final step towards a shared name and logo for users in Denmark, Greenland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. The logo will use the familiar blue colour in Denmark and Finland, while it is orange in Norway and Sweden.

The app’s functions will not change. Contacts, payment agreements, wish lists and transaction history will remain, and users do not need to take any action, the company says.

Svavars said she expects people gradually to replace “mobilepaye” with “vippse”.