21–30 of 49 posts
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).
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...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
(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-...
> 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 busin…
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.
I hope they expand throughout the pacific and come to New Zealand at some point, more competition and innovative features are what's needed.
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.
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…
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)…
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.
I hope they expand throughout the pacific and come to New Zealand at some point, more competition and innovative features are what's needed.
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.
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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)…
> 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 s…