Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising • Hacker News Board

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#21

Post by that_guy_iain » Sun, Mar 14, 2021, 9:53 PM UTC

pxue wrote: post #7

Graffur wrote: post #3

What is Stripe's moat? It's developer friendly but from my experience management will only care about the cost.

they locked in the bottom up approach. Payments typically isn't something people have deep knowledge about, so management defer to devs to do the research, when that happens devs going to pick the easiest API to work with.

Honestly, I find that a lot of the time it's management picks a payment provider and then devs have to implement it. You don't need to have deep knowledge to know you want to accept payments and how much it'll cost. And if I remember correctly when they entered the market they were all about how much you paid was cheaper and clear than with the big boys who all had a higher barrier to entry.

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#22

Post by manishsharan » Sun, Mar 14, 2021, 9:54 PM UTC

Graffur wrote: post #3

What is Stripe's moat? It's developer friendly but from my experience management will only care about the cost.

Think of it this way: there is no opportunity for an new entrant into this market almost globally. Stripe's fee is low enough and its API is super easy to use and the brand is well loved by most ecommerce companies. A new entrant will have to go up against this enormous amount of goodwill that Stripe has accumulated. The only danger to Stripe is if a major bank decides to get into this space. I work for a major bank and let me assure you that the technical expertise , market savvy and wisdom to pull off a new venture like this just doesnt exist in banks.

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#23

Post by Cu3PO42 » Sun, Mar 14, 2021, 9:54 PM UTC

missedthecue wrote: post #13

heavyset_go wrote: post #6

I'm building a non-profit and Stripe fees eat into donations. Are there any good Stripe alternatives out there?

At the end of the day someone has to pay the interchange fees.

Sure, but not necessarily the ridiculously high ones. You could just cap them to a reasonably low percentage. In the EU it's 0.3% on credit cards and 0.2% on debit cards.

Edit: This is also reflected in Stripe's pricing. They charge EU customers 1.4%+25ct on EU cards and honestly you can go lower. Adyen does Interchange++ and 10ct, which if you're not a big customer probably works out to around 1%+10ct.

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#24

Post by SMAAART » Sun, Mar 14, 2021, 9:58 PM UTC

missedthecue wrote: post #19

Is Stripe unprofitable? What kind of scale are they going to reach that will push them over the edge into the black that they haven't been able to reach at the vast scale they already have? If they are profitable, why go the expensive equity route rather than using retained earnings? Or bonds? American Airlines recently sold $10 billion of them at 5.5%. Surely Stripe could do just as well or better.

Payment is just the entry point; from there they are probably going to expand into other quasi-bank services; the first low-hanging fruit that comes to mind is Advance Loans secured by CC receivables; easy, popular and highly lucrative.

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#25

Post by edwinwee » Sun, Mar 14, 2021, 9:59 PM UTC

heavyset_go wrote: post #6

I'm building a non-profit and Stripe fees eat into donations. Are there any good Stripe alternatives out there?

Stripe can oftentimes lower fees for nonprofits (https://support.stripe.com/questions/fee-discount-for-nonpro...). Email nonprofit@stripe.com and CC edwin@stripe.com—we’d be happy to chat.

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#26

Post by DLay » Sun, Mar 14, 2021, 10:02 PM UTC

sebmellen wrote: post #4

This certainly makes Stripe the most valuable private startup in the world. Where does Stripe rank among the world's most valuable private companies, though? It's easy to find lists of dubious quality like this: https://news.yahoo.com/10-most-valuable-private-companies-21... , but I'm sure there are more lurking. What are they?

Bytedance was valued at $180 billion back in November. I was shocked to learn how many products they have besides Douyin/TikTok.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/05/tiktoks-parent-company-byt...

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#27

Post by Graffur » Sun, Mar 14, 2021, 10:06 PM UTC

manishsharan wrote: post #22

Graffur wrote: post #3

What is Stripe's moat? It's developer friendly but from my experience management will only care about the cost.

Think of it this way: there is no opportunity for an new entrant into this market almost globally. Stripe's fee is low enough and its API is super easy to use and the brand is well loved by most ecommerce companies. A new entrant will have to go up against this enormous amount of goodwill that Stripe has accumulated. The only danger to Stripe is if a major bank decides to get into this space. I work for a major bank…

> there is no opportunity for an new entrant into this market almost globally?

Why is that? Is it something Stripe achieved over time?

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#28

Post by abalone » Sun, Mar 14, 2021, 10:07 PM UTC

manishsharan wrote: post #22

Graffur wrote: post #3

What is Stripe's moat? It's developer friendly but from my experience management will only care about the cost.

Think of it this way: there is no opportunity for an new entrant into this market almost globally. Stripe's fee is low enough and its API is super easy to use and the brand is well loved by most ecommerce companies. A new entrant will have to go up against this enormous amount of goodwill that Stripe has accumulated. The only danger to Stripe is if a major bank decides to get into this space. I work for a major bank…

Low pricing is not a moat.

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#29

Post by buro9 » Sun, Mar 14, 2021, 10:09 PM UTC

manishsharan wrote: post #22

Graffur wrote: post #3

What is Stripe's moat? It's developer friendly but from my experience management will only care about the cost.

Think of it this way: there is no opportunity for an new entrant into this market almost globally. Stripe's fee is low enough and its API is super easy to use and the brand is well loved by most ecommerce companies. A new entrant will have to go up against this enormous amount of goodwill that Stripe has accumulated. The only danger to Stripe is if a major bank decides to get into this space. I work for a major bank…

Disagree.

Every ecommerce company and retailer looks at payment fees as money left on the table.

The more money Stripe take on, the more they need to return to investors, and so the more pressure to make margin. That is the opportunity for the future.

I too doubt it would come from a bank, nor from Visa and Mastercard... but could another exist? Yes!

If it came from a big player, I'd be looking at Shopify.

Re: Stripe valuation soars to $95B after latest fundraising

#30

Post by SmellTheGlove » Sun, Mar 14, 2021, 10:09 PM UTC

Graffur wrote: post #3

What is Stripe's moat? It's developer friendly but from my experience management will only care about the cost.

Think about how much complexity Stripe abstracts away from you as its user. In the US it might seem "simple" in that it's just cards, but each network/acquirer behaves differently enough that even that isn't easy. Now incorporate payment methods that aren't cards -- which are way more popular than cards in other parts of the world. Then think about decoupling the payment method from the geo. And then decouple the pay-in from the pay-out. We're not even talking about their other products at this point, and already it's a pretty complex business.

The fact that we can think "what's so hard about that?" is declaring Stripe's moat without even knowing you did it.