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Square now in Japan

squareup.com

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Re: Square now in Japan

#21

Post by samwillis »

anxx wrote: post #19
madeofpalk wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you can't 'just' have a small chip reader. The PIN can only be entered in hardware, so you end up with something ridiculous like this http://www.ingenico.com/en/products/payment-terminals/mobili...

This is curious, why can it only be entered in hardware? Is it a safety precaution?

Yes, if the pin number is entered into the software running on the phone then that software can easily be changed to log people pin numbers.

Re: Square now in Japan

#22

Post by po »

jakerocheleau wrote: post #13
rtpg wrote: post #3

At the HN meetup in Tokyo just last week people were complaining about the lack of something like Square in Japan. I guess things will get better now. Transforming your iPad/iPhone into a register is also pretty neat. I wonder if they'll look into putting an NFC reader in there and interface with all the IC cards here. Most people don't pay for their coffee by credit card.

Coming from somebody who has always wanted to visit Tokyo, I can only imagine what the HN meetups are like.

The HN meetups in tokyo might not be as you imagine. :-) Japan is not as startup-friendly as you might suppose based on the amount of technology that comes out of the country, but things are changing here. In the past few years we've seen a lot more interest in entrepreneurship and startups, VC's, and incubators.

We run a casual, low-pressure mixer kind of event about once a month. If you come to Japan, you can follow our blog (http://www.makeleaps.jp/blog/en/) or signup on Doorkeeper to get notified of events. We get lots of visitors from abroad swinging through and we're always looking to help support other startups in Japan or small businesses trying to enter the market here. It's a really good crowd of people.

There's also a meetup for HN readers in the kansai area of Japan if you're visiting there.

Re: Square now in Japan

#23

Post by ouaibe »

madeofpalk wrote: post #15
_frog wrote: post #4

So I take it that Japan doesn't have EMV chips in their bank cards yet? I'm curious to see how Square tackles that when they hopefully expand to Europe and Australia.

Been to an Apple Store in the last month (In Australia, at least)? This is how Apple tackles it http://www.ingenico.com/en/products/payment-terminals/mobili...

And you get a real FIPS-compliant hardened device manufactured by someone that actually knows (and tries) how to handle security/crypto vs Square that doesn't really offer anything as such and that handles your track data in the non-protected memory of the phone...

Re: Square now in Japan

#25

Post by nchlswu »

_frog wrote: post #4

So I take it that Japan doesn't have EMV chips in their bank cards yet? I'm curious to see how Square tackles that when they hopefully expand to Europe and Australia.

Square has expanded to Canada. We have an impending chip legislation that takes effect I think within the next two years? I'm sure it's in the works

Re: Square now in Japan

#26

Post by pwim »

rtpg wrote: post #3

At the HN meetup in Tokyo just last week people were complaining about the lack of something like Square in Japan. I guess things will get better now. Transforming your iPad/iPhone into a register is also pretty neat. I wonder if they'll look into putting an NFC reader in there and interface with all the IC cards here. Most people don't pay for their coffee by credit card.

We were complaining about the lack of Stripe.

There have are some Japanese startups, such as Coiney (http://coiney.com/) who are already doing the same thing as Square.

Re: Square now in Japan

#27

Post by ricardobeat »

It's interesting how their homepage design 'looks japanese'. The woman's shoes; squeaky clean, almost artificial skin in the hand portraits; the tiled colorful boxes; flat buttons & footer. Something reminiscent of Uniqlo.
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