Stripe enters Asia with Japan beta launch

https://www.techinasia.com/stripe-japan-private-beta-launch/

by collision • 11 years ago

84 46 11 years ago

sdrothrock3• 11 years ago

It's nice to see Stripe coming here, but I wonder how much demand there really is for it. Many (Japanese) people I know would rather stick to bank transfers and payment at convenience stores than use credit cards. All of our company-to-company business is handled with bank transfers. The only reason we have a credit card is for international transactions, I guess.

On a semi-related side note, I saw Square out in the wild for the first time the other week -- I went to a newish bar and asked the owner if he took credit card; he said he'd bought something and would try it out with my card and it turned out to be Square's dongle, which I've seen in convenience stores here.

paulsutter3• 11 years ago

The predominant use of credit cards in Japan is ecommerce / online, which is, of course, Stripe's target market.

Japanese have on average 2.6 credit cards[1] and spend on average about $3000 a year on those cards. So yes, they're used less often than in the US but they have broad adoption.

Japanese people often tell me that Japanese don't like to use credit cards. But ask them, do they have one? (of course! they say), do they use it online? (of course! they say). So it's true in real life, not just in this report.

[1] https://www.j-credit.or.jp/en/reports/

EDIT: Ok, are you willing to predict failure for Stripe in Japan? Or do you just like being negative in a way that can't be tested? Their strategy seems sound to me, and I predict success.

sdrothrock3• 11 years ago

Japanese people have on average 2.6 credit cards[1] and spend on average about $3000 a year on those cards. So yes, they're used less often but they have broad adoption.

I've never seen a really detailed report that drills down into where people use them. Most people I know with cards will use them (or are forced to use them) for internet/cell phone payments, then pay for anything they buy on their smartphone through the carrier payment system, which is all charged to the card at the end of the month. The phone and plan alone (not counting apps, shopping, etc.) would probably account for $1200 a year on a credit card, which is a significant percentage of the $3000 you're citing and that's not a chunk that Stripe could conceivably take since it's initiated in a real-world transaction at a store and used for e-commerce after that.

I don't know a whole lot of people who actually go around putting their card numbers into sites, especially if they have Rakuten cards -- they just tend to stay in the little convenient walled garden and/or select convenience store or bank transfer payments.

So there are a lot of entrenched "don't worry about it" payment systems that Japanese consumers have already bought into.

Ok, are you willing to predict failure for Stripe in Japan? Or do you just like being negative?

I'm mostly wondering what Stripe plans to bring to the table in Japan. It's hard to get excited about another online payment processor when online payments here are way easier than I remember them ever being in America. I can order and pay cash for practically anything I want online without worrying about my credit card information being leaked, etc. If I don't want to pay cash for whatever reason, credit cards haven't been difficult to use online; Rakuten makes it just as easy as Amazon does, too. I don't think I've ever had an online shopping experience where I wished there were a simpler payment processor.

I do almost all of my shopping online, so I'd imagine I'm one of the consumers that would potentially be using Stripe, but it's difficult for me to see exactly where it would make my life easier or better. At work, bank transfers are the de facto standard simply for traceability and ease of use.

Edit: Put another way, one of the main problems with American companies trying to come into Japan is that they don't really know what Japan already has to offer or why Japanese people prefer things a certain way, and I'm curious about how Stripe intends to target Japan versus just bringing in an American product and hoping it takes off.

snogglethorpe2• 11 years ago

Japanese people often tell me that Japanese don't like to use credit cards. But ask them, do they have one? (of course! they say), do they use it online? (of course! they say). So it's true in real life, not just in this report.

Existing online services don't generally give you a lot of choice for payment.

"No other choice" != "Like".

Credit cards and bank transfers (which in Japan are very simple) have different strengths, but the one that sticks out for me is that a bank transfer keeps more control with the buyer, and exposes the buyer to less long-term risk: The service provider can steal your money by not providing the service, but they don't have any info they can use to steal money in the future.

mikekchar• 11 years ago

It may actually be true that credit card use is predominantly online / ecommerce, but I have to say that this is not what I have experienced. My wife has a credit card and occasionally uses it for online purchases, but what we use it for mostly is: rent (really!), and cell phone.

I was really surprised when we rented our flat lately that a credit card was necessary (possibly as a means to keep out foreigners like me who often don't have access to credit cards...) We could pay for the cell phone with cash, but it is easiest to get the initial contract if you have credit card. Then through laziness, it is easiest to continue to pay through the credit card.

Most transactions that we do, even online, are cash based. Granted, we live in a small rural town, not Tokyo and I can believe that things are different there.

The reason I replied to your message is not to be negative or to predict the failure of Stripe (I like Stripe quite a lot), but rather to point out that Japanese ways of doing business may be different than they are expecting. I hope they are successful, but I also hope that they temper their expectations.

anurag5• 11 years ago

(I work at Stripe.) I'd think of Stripe as more than just credit card payments. We already accept bank transfers in private beta in the US and would obviously love to expand this to other countries once it's ready. That said, it turns out credit card payments make up 60% of online commerce in Japan [1], so we figured we'd start with that!

[1] http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Consumers/Japan-credit-card-...

sdrothrock3• 11 years ago

We already accept bank transfers in private beta in the US and would obviously love to expand this to other countries once it's ready.

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on what Stripe would offer in Japan in terms of being a bank transfer mediator. Unlike the US, bank transfers here are very simple and routine -- you can perform them at almost any ATM or online, and providing that they're done within business hours, they're virtually instant. Setting up recurring transfers is also simple and routine.

laurieg3• 11 years ago

Any chance of more esoteric payment methods like convenience store payments?

richardbrevig• 11 years ago

Is there a way to get included in the ACH beta?

shioyama• 11 years ago

There are other developer-friendly options that handle offline payment methods in Japan (bank transfer, konbini, payeasy), e.g. Komoju: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27368278/payment-gateway...

cperciva• 11 years ago

I wonder how much demand there really is for it. Many (Japanese) people I know would rather stick to bank transfers

Even if that's correct... you're talking about how Japanese people like to pay for things. Stripe entering Japan isn't about allowing people in Japan to pay for things using credit cards; it's about allowing people in Japan to get paid using credit cards.

Sure, Japanese companies will have a higher proportion of Japanese customers, but this will be important if they have any customers from outside of Japan.

Xixi• 11 years ago

This is a step in the right direction, sadly as of this writing only JPY are supported [1]. I'll be switching tomotcha.com as soon as it supports USD. And probably open a bottle of champagne to celebrate.

I love you Stripe, keep up the good work!

[1] https://support.stripe.com/questions/which-currencies-does-s...

anurag5• 11 years ago

Thanks! This is a (limited) private beta; we'll have much more feature parity over the months leading to a full launch.

laurieg3• 11 years ago

I'll be interested to see how well they do. In Japan there is Webpay which is almost a carbon copy of Stripe and was recently bought by Line so now has some clout behind it.

Klonoar• 11 years ago

The problem with every Stripe clone in Japan is that they're all great on the surface but they trip up on the attention to detail that Stripe has, and they just wind up feeling like inferior product as a result.

In addition, Stripe's documentation and support has always been top notch. Whenever I tried to get help from WebPay it took forever, and more than once I had to patch their own libraries to make things work properly.

laurieg3• 11 years ago

I agree whole-heartedly. Copying foreign innovation for the Japanese market is a common business model in Japan, but it usually falls down on the details.

kijin• 11 years ago

Oh please please please come to South Korea next. The payment processing market here is practically begging to be disrupted.

kruk• 11 years ago

Looks like the hot payment startups are finally getting serious about Asia. Braintree recently launched in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, now Stripe in Japan.

Assuming they will want to avoid wasting resources battling each other the next logical step would be for Stripe to launch in South Korea and for Braintree to launch in Indonesia.

spacestation• 11 years ago

finally. I've been waiting for Stripe to come to Japan. I operate a hostel, SPACE riverhouse, in Nikko, Japan http://space.st and use Squarespace and the reservation system I use also integrates with Stripe. The bonus will be a little store front.

I have a square reader (does't integrate well) and paypal (clunky widgets that don't really apply).

Really excited about this.

disordinary• 11 years ago

I hope they expand throughout the pacific and come to New Zealand at some point, more competition and innovative features are what's needed.

jdswain• 11 years ago

I think I've managed to find a workaround for New Zealand. Stripe is in Australia and it is possible for a NZ company to open a bank account in Australia so this should work. It's not ideal as it does add some bank fees, but it appears to be a viable solution.

holic• 11 years ago

How do taxes work in that case?

lemming• 11 years ago

Braintree are currently in alpha in New Zealand. You can sign up now, I believe.

pqdbr• 11 years ago

I know they should be doing their best to roll out internationally as soon as possible. But in Brazil everybody is fed up with all the existing payment solutions.

Please Stripe, come take our money. (I'm not joking).

anurag5• 11 years ago

We want your money. We're coming for it.

hakanderyal• 11 years ago

Tip: Turkey has a growing startup economy. Great opportunities there.

armandososa• 11 years ago

I see that Stripe is in private beta in Mexico too. How does one become a private beta tester? I'd love to be one of the first to try it out.

anurag5• 11 years ago

las_cases• 11 years ago

Is there any guide about what it takes for Stripe to launch in a country? From this article it seems that it was entirely Stripe's choice to launch in Japan (rising culture of startups apparently) so why not entering the Eastern Europe (Poland. Croatia, Romania etc) too?

Take Romania for example, we would love to have a decent alternative to PayPal, are there any legislation impediments that prevents Stripe from entering here? Also, what exactly are the costs for Stripe when launching in a new country?

paulsutter3• 11 years ago

Japan is the second largest and most homogenous consumer economy in the world, and everything works here (infrastructure, payments, etc).

That was the rationale that the cofounder of a different major Silicon Valley payments company told me when they chose Japan as the first country outside the US, and it seems like a credible rationale for Stripe to put Japan high on their list.

There's also a very low rate of fraud here in Japan, which should count for a lot.

markvdb• 11 years ago

Have you tried using paymill? It's available in the entire EU...

hiby007• 11 years ago

I will be so happy when stripe enters India :)

_urga• 11 years ago

Great to see Stripe in another country. I keep checking Stripe's blog and global page for news of Stripe in South Africa. Hope Africa will be next after Asia.

bosky101• 11 years ago

did patio have anything to do with the GTM?

Stripe enters Asia with Japan beta launch

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