
Stripe enters Asia with Japan beta launch - collision
https://www.techinasia.com/stripe-japan-private-beta-launch/
======
sdrothrock
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.

~~~
anurag
(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-...](http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Consumers/Japan-credit-card-use-
up-10-in-2014)

~~~
sdrothrock
> 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.

~~~
greggman
They are also expensive. Usually $6 per transaction IIRC when I used to pay my
rent.

~~~
withjive
Here in Thailand, instant bank transfers at any ATMs cost about 25 baht—
roughly $0.75 USD per transaction.

With such an easy method of sending money between people, it's extremely
handy. Compared to what I'm used to in Canada, only thing that comes close is
e-interac payments via email which is still a pain.

~~~
Symbiote
That still seems expensive to me, since such transfers are free for personal
customers in the UK.

Looking at the business charges at Barclay's, the transfer is either 35p
($0.55) or free, depending on the account.

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las_cases
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?

~~~
paulsutter
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.

------
pqdbr
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).

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

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

------
disordinary
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
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
How do taxes work in that case?

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spacestation
finally. I've been waiting for Stripe to come to Japan. I operate a hostel,
SPACE riverhouse, in Nikko, Japan [http://space.st](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.

------
laurieg
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
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.

~~~
laurieg
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.

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Xixi
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...](https://support.stripe.com/questions/which-currencies-does-stripe-
support#japan)

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

------
armandososa
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.

~~~
anurag
Sign up here! [https://stripe.com/global#MX](https://stripe.com/global#MX)

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kruk
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.

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jorangreef
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.

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

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hiby007
I will be so happy when stripe enters India :)

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bosky101
did patio have anything to do with the GTM?

