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MasterCard's Simplify Commerce

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Re: MasterCard's Simplify Commerce

#111

Post by Jhsto »

pc wrote: post #32
white_devil wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PLEASE tell the world why it's so damn difficult to let non-US businesses use a payment service? We're dying to know. Is it because of bullshit regulations everywhere? Why has it taken you forever to set up shop in a couple of places in Europe? Why not the rest too? Seriously. What is it?

It's a combination things. - Legally, we need to be able to verify identities. We want to do this frictionlessly and in real-time rather than with some paperwork sheaf that gets mailed to you a week later. The solution looks different in almost every country. - Visa, MasterCard, and co. have rules that effectively prevent you from using the same backends in different areas. (E.g., you can't use the same backend in Eu…

A Finnish banking startup, Holvi, uses online banks to verify the user's ID. And that is all they require on top of phone verification. If I recall right, they state that 'online bank authentication is the only way to verify user ID online'.

Why others don't do that, but instead ask me to file all these documents by printing and scanning them?

Re: MasterCard's Simplify Commerce

#112

Post by 7Figures2Commas »

pc wrote: post #19
greghinch wrote: post #16

To play diplomat, I see a lot of Stripe loyalty / Mastercard hate already brewing here, and I think that's a bit unwarranted. Stripe has certainly earned their place as a cherished service, but I would venture to bet a lot of devs worked quite hard on Simplify as well, so it'd be nice to see discussion on the merits of the offering rather than preconceived notions of the provider. If nothing else, even if 0.05% isn't…

(I built the first version of Stripe and work here.) I think the unfortunate aspect of these clones is that they're lazy. I have huge respect for anyone that innovates in payments -- I know how hard it is, and I'd imagine it's even harder to do that as part of a larger company. What I find disappointing is when a product copies everything about Stripe -- everything from Stripe.js to the "live/test" switch to the "1/2…

> ...but I don't think it's particularly worthy of support from other engineers and makers.

Simplify might be a Stripe clone, but if it's just as reliable, cheaper and allows me to get my hands on my money faster, why shouldn't I consider it? I'm an engineer/"maker" but that doesn't mean that I select commodity services based on emotion or ideology. After all, saving money and getting my money faster supports my ability to continue making stuff.

I need to accept payments online. I am your customer. You should be trying to convince me that Stripe is the best payment solution for my business, not labeling a new competitor "lazy" and suggesting that I avoid it because it opted not to reinvent the wheel.

> We should encourage each other any time we see great, original work -- creativity is hard, and new ideas are often delicate in the early days. It'd be really cool if MasterCard did that, but Simplify unfortunately doesn't seem to have anything that's new.

I really, really like Stripe and think you have built a great service but reading this makes me cringe.

Innovation and first mover advantage do not guarantee success. In fact, sitting back and following can be a smart approach: it's less risky and less costly to let others invest in new ideas and "copy" what gains traction in the market. I know this is blasphemy in Silicon Valley, but it's the harsh reality of business.

We'll see if the market finds Simplify's lower pricing and faster payouts compelling enough, but I don't think it's fair to insinuate that the only source of legitimate, meaningful and effective differentiation comes from building something "original".

Re: MasterCard's Simplify Commerce

#114

Post by confluence »

pc wrote: post #19
greghinch wrote: post #16

To play diplomat, I see a lot of Stripe loyalty / Mastercard hate already brewing here, and I think that's a bit unwarranted. Stripe has certainly earned their place as a cherished service, but I would venture to bet a lot of devs worked quite hard on Simplify as well, so it'd be nice to see discussion on the merits of the offering rather than preconceived notions of the provider. If nothing else, even if 0.05% isn't…

(I built the first version of Stripe and work here.) I think the unfortunate aspect of these clones is that they're lazy. I have huge respect for anyone that innovates in payments -- I know how hard it is, and I'd imagine it's even harder to do that as part of a larger company. What I find disappointing is when a product copies everything about Stripe -- everything from Stripe.js to the "live/test" switch to the "1/2…

Original work doesn't exist. Everything is a remix of old ideas. For example, one could argue that Stripe is just a copy of one of the many already existent payment processing APIs, with better marketing. What exactly do you do that's so different? Better ad copy?

And honestly, the things you say are "copied" are fairly lame things that anyone could've done. It's not like they stole any secret sauce, like when Boeing used industrial espionage to steal information on rocket manufacturing from Lockheed Martin.

Competition exists. You don't have a right to monopoly. Suck it up, because you just aren't that original.

Re: MasterCard's Simplify Commerce

#115

Post by dasil003 »

antr wrote: post #60
pc wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(I built the first version of Stripe and work here.) I think the unfortunate aspect of these clones is that they're lazy. I have huge respect for anyone that innovates in payments -- I know how hard it is, and I'd imagine it's even harder to do that as part of a larger company. What I find disappointing is when a product copies everything about Stripe -- everything from Stripe.js to the "live/test" switch to the "1/2…

The SV expectation/mentality that if someone builds something first they "own" that space is unjustifiable. I'm not say you are saying that, but it is an implicit attitude in the Valley. Competition (or "clones") were around 100 years ago, continue to exist today and will be around for the next 100 years. Today's innovation is tomorrow's commodity thanks to competition. This is good. Is it disappointing that MasterCa…

> The SV expectation/mentality that if someone builds something first they "own" that space is unjustifiable. I'm not say you are saying that, but it is an implicit attitude in the Valley.

First I wanted to say I think this is a bit of a non-sequitur because it's not like Stripe invented a new space here, they entered a crowded space which had already seen relatively recent innovation from PayPal and Braintree in preceding years.

But then I got thinking some more and I don't know where you get this idea that there is an implicit attitude that anyone owns anything in SV. Sharing of ideas and me-too companies are everywhere in SV. Sure people consider it kind of a douchey move to do a clone of your friends company after he shared his whole execution plan with you, but I don't think that indicates anywhere near as strong of an implicit ownership as you are describing.

The bottom line here is not that MasterCard are in the wrong, or that it's not beneficial to the ecosystem as a whole, but just that they don't deserve any special applause for some pointy hair somewhere deciding "OMG Stripe are going to eat our lunch, put your 100 best engineers on reverse engineering this API posthaste!"

Re: MasterCard's Simplify Commerce

#116

Post by jrgnsd »

diggan wrote: post #20

As usual, there is no information at all on which countries that is supported, I guess this is only supported in USA. Maybe I'm the only one outside of America... Edit: Yeah, after registering, confirming my email and trying to apply for a full account, I know that it's only for America. Sigh...

I had to read through the Developer Terms of Use to find that out.

Re: MasterCard's Simplify Commerce

#117

Post by sangaya »

jwilliams wrote: post #92

Restricted to US individuals and companies only... I'm not sure why sites don't call that out from the get-go.

It is not restricted to US individuals, just US Businesses. "Using Simplify Commerce, you can create payments with credit and debit cards carrying major card brand logos for customers anywhere in the world. At this time, however, the merchant must be a U.S. business." [https://simplify.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1173591-s...]

Re: MasterCard's Simplify Commerce

#118

Post by chiph »

hmind wrote: post #101
chiph wrote: post #100

Looks like they don't handle recurring charges for you. So you'll have to be the one to hold onto the card number and jump through the PCI compliance hoops. Or go with a card vault service.

Is it not this? https://www.simplify.com/commerce/docs/tutorial/index#recurr...

Whoops. Didn't see that. Thanks.

Re: MasterCard's Simplify Commerce

#119

Post by patrickk »

sideproject wrote: post #76
kawera wrote: post #54

At this time, however, the merchant must be a U.S. business Oh well...

With clones of Stripe poppin' up everywhere, I think the niche advantage would be to be able to scale the service to a number of other countries where this type of service is either expensive or unavailable (please come to Australia! - I know there is "pin", but we wouldn't mind a cheaper alternative without any monthly fees!)

Paymill is one of the clones (the Samwer Brothers are behind it), they cover many European countries:

https://www.paymill.com

Re: MasterCard's Simplify Commerce

#120

Post by ahoyhere »

confluence wrote: post #114
pc wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(I built the first version of Stripe and work here.) I think the unfortunate aspect of these clones is that they're lazy. I have huge respect for anyone that innovates in payments -- I know how hard it is, and I'd imagine it's even harder to do that as part of a larger company. What I find disappointing is when a product copies everything about Stripe -- everything from Stripe.js to the "live/test" switch to the "1/2…

Original work doesn't exist. Everything is a remix of old ideas. For example, one could argue that Stripe is just a copy of one of the many already existent payment processing APIs, with better marketing. What exactly do you do that's so different? Better ad copy? And honestly, the things you say are "copied" are fairly lame things that anyone could've done. It's not like they stole any secret sauce, like when Boeing…

What "already existent payment processing APIs" do you think Stripe was a "copy" of? Because as somebody who actually takes a lot of money in CC payments online, I can tell you: Stripe changed everything.
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