Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

numair.medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 84 posts

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#31

Post by dalbasal »

There was a point in time, maybe circa 2008, where platforms were expected to be a thing. The web was/is a platform. Operating systems were a platform, and MSFT even got rich. Platforms had the power to support an ecosystem so rich their inventors' could never have imagined it.

Facebook and Twitter genuinely had plans to be platforms, remember? Paul Graham even called it a new core protocol, and YC recruited startups specifically to build onto it.

...It didn't work out that way. The "platform" analogy doesn't really hold. What did emerge was one of two things. One model is the "portal" concept, of dotcom buzz. Google & Facebook are portals to content, and they have all the power/profit that comes with controlling access... AKA, exactly what we were afraid ISPs and AOL-like efforts would try to do... the reason why "net neutrality" got a name. The other model is private marketplaces: Youtube, amazon, spotify, etc. You make the rules, cream the market and tax the participants.

Stripe is a portal, sort of. They're a lot like Visa.

I think 80s/90s operating system wars an anomaly that led smart people at that time to think private companies could be real platforms. PG even wrestles with the problem in his short not on the topic re: twitter. Modern, locked down app store OSs are the normal outcome. The "ecosystems" exist to support the portal, not the other way around.

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#32

Post by edwinwee »

Edwin from Stripe here. At first, I think I agree with the title (the article itself, not so much). Stripe isn't really a platform. It's a platform of platforms.

The three products linked to in the article, Invoicing, Payment Links, and Capital, were three of the most requested features from our users. So we built them.

And platforms use all of them to provide these services to their users. Invoicing's smart dunning enables 14% more revenue collection; Payment Links lets businesses get started with payments with no code (and no additional cost!); Capital not only gives businesses instant access to financing that flexes with income — but allows platforms to provide that fast financing to their customers. Since these products were requested by our users, we think they'll be useful for other businesses and their customers too.

The core of Stripe is very much still platform-focused. After all, Stripe's mission is to increase the GDP of the internet. It'd be a bit naive to think that that just means payments processing in today's economy. Starting and running an internet business will always be evolving (and is getting increasingly complex), and Stripe will continue to build the products that our users ask of us.

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#33

Post by randrews »

hn8788 wrote: post #28
wffurr wrote: post #20

"everyone agreed on a solution: let the cat handle it. And so, for what seemed like an eternity, the cat went to work on the mouse, slowly torturing it limb-by-limb. This went on for at least a day, probably longer." Yikes. What the hell is wrong with these people?

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but animals don't care about the humane treatment of the other animals they kill.

I don't think he was expecting the cat to care, but the cat owners.

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#34

Post by idlewords »

dfabulich wrote: post #17
idlewords wrote: post #13

I collect payments on my website with PayPal and Stripe, and am satisfied with neither. So what alternatives do I have? From my perspective, the advantage of PayPal is that users worldwide can pay in weird currencies and it just works. Stripe is much better designed but I'm not keen on their plans for world domination. I just want a payment system that works and does not take exorbitant fees for routine transactions.

I'm not sure what you're looking for beyond what PayPal offers. You say you "just want a payment system that works and does not take exorbitant fees" but you also say that PayPal "just works," which seems to satisfy your requirements. So, can you elaborate more on what you want? Do you feel that PayPal is taking exorbitant fees? What would make a "just works" system better than PayPal? Does Stripe "just work" for you…

I'm fine with plans for world domination in the early stage, I just don't really want to help the drive to monopoly later on. Stripe is now big enough that I'm ready to point my meager business at the next upstart.

As far as being better than PayPal, I mainly want something that customers who hate PayPal can use (there are many of them and they are vocal).

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#36

Post by temuze »

wffurr wrote: post #20

"everyone agreed on a solution: let the cat handle it. And so, for what seemed like an eternity, the cat went to work on the mouse, slowly torturing it limb-by-limb. This went on for at least a day, probably longer." Yikes. What the hell is wrong with these people?

Also glue traps are heinously cruel.

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#37

Post by the_gipsy »

edwinwee wrote: post #32

Edwin from Stripe here. At first, I think I agree with the title (the article itself, not so much). Stripe isn't really a platform. It's a platform of platforms. The three products linked to in the article, Invoicing, Payment Links, and Capital, were three of the most requested features from our users. So we built them. And platforms use all of them to provide these services to their users. Invoicing's smart dunning…

> Stripe isn't really a platform. It's a platform of platforms.

See? It's not a pyramid. It's an inverted funnel!

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#38

Post by harrisonjackson »

When I saw payment links had launched my first thought was, "Wow I bet there are a lot of little guys that have built or are building similar products on top of stripe"

As far as "being a mouse" goes, I think payment links has to be the absolute lowest hanging fruit.

It will be interesting to see how much Stripe backs into Shopify's offering - all their hosted checkout pages and customer portals start to overlap with other hosted retail solutions and it still aligns with their mission to increase the GDP of the internet.

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#39

Post by marcus_holmes »

nowherebeen wrote: post #2

Yup. That’s why I feel a little bit uncomfortable being their customer. You can tell their end goal is to become the e-commerce platform for everyone. It might sound great for customers until they aren’t.

Businesses are there to make money for their shareholders. If the best way of doing that is to become a monopoly and squeeze customers, then that's what they'll do.

I'm not sure what the author is complaining about. Why wouldn't Stripe expand into every available niche it can reach and "nibble" customers for every cent it can?

What kind of board meeting would that be: "we've identified an opportunity here, but we've decided not to pursue it because that would be mean, or something"

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#40

Post by hencq »

wffurr wrote: post #20

"everyone agreed on a solution: let the cat handle it. And so, for what seemed like an eternity, the cat went to work on the mouse, slowly torturing it limb-by-limb. This went on for at least a day, probably longer." Yikes. What the hell is wrong with these people?

Right. Followed later by this gem:

> And when faced with a mouse, there’s three options: kick it out, run away in terror, or catch and torture it.

I think you learn more about the author than about Stripe from this article.

Post reply on HN