Now that Europe has had this, where's Canada? Am I still stuck with PayPal as my only viable option for payments?
* Germany has this.
Doing payment processing in a range of countries is hard.
Samwers Clone Stripe
41–50 of 167 posts
Re: Samwers Clone Stripe
#42Looks like they're a PHP shop and only offer PHP client libs yet. Seems they didn't even understand the message Stripe has in kinds of developer focus. Also: Why would I use a payment service of the biggest copy cat company in the country ? To deliver them my revenue numbers on a silver plate so they can decide if they should "enter my market"? They don't even openly publish the upcoming fees and just want you to "ve…
Why would you even care if they are a copy cat or not? Surely what matters is things such as delivering on promises, reasonable prices and quality of service.
As an European I can tell you that no one is going to wait years for a valley startup to establish itself in Europe when there are sufficiently good alternatives right here and now.
Re: Samwers Clone Stripe
#43I don't get it. Why do US net startups very often make the same mistake of not expanding into the whole world quickly? It took eBay something like 4 years to go to Germany, by which time there was a local clone there that proved to be uncatchable. The expensive result was that eBay had to buy the clone (Alando) for 43 million dollars to become relevant. Kickstarter is still US-only. Stripe as well. So are countless o…
The founders don't have the local knowledge and contacts to get through the regulatory hoops involved in launching a new payment gateway in dozens of countries. I think there was an article on HN where someone was talking about how these kinds of startups (the ones with difficult regulatory barriers) are the only ones that you should consider cloning in other countries for this very reason.
> The founders don't have the local knowledge and contacts to get through the regulatory hoops involved in launching a new payment gateway in dozens of countries
With the millions of dollars these companies get from investors you'd think they could hire local knowledge to figure it out for them.
Re: Samwers Clone Stripe
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am curious what the alternative but far more popular payment variants in Germany to credit cards are.
Direct debit and instant wire transfer are very big in Germany. Many places, especially supermarkets, do not even accept any credit cards but only debit cards. Our checking accounts have evolved very differently to the US - nobody has been using cheques here for years, even before the internet is was all debit and wires.
Are the wiring rates low, relative to other countries around Germany or otherwise? How are wire rates for wiring money from say the UK? Who are the primary wire transfer companies in use in Germany?
Thank you for your time.
Re: Samwers Clone Stripe
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am curious what the alternative but far more popular payment variants in Germany to credit cards are.
Direct debit and instant wire transfer are very big in Germany. Many places, especially supermarkets, do not even accept any credit cards but only debit cards. Our checking accounts have evolved very differently to the US - nobody has been using cheques here for years, even before the internet is was all debit and wires.
And starting this year, due to an EU law, they have to reach the target institute the next business day, so it's quite convenient and cost-effective.
Re: Samwers Clone Stripe
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was initially appalled when I first read about the Samwar clone factory. Now I agree, in cases like this they're filling a gap in the market.
The only gap is, that Recurly and Spreedly were not able to tell the EU founders that their service is available and working perfectly fine with European payment gateways. They all have JS and REST-APIs and a lot more: - http://recurly.com/ - http://spreedly.com/
Nope.
Although Recurly could be technically used in Europe, it generates invalid invoices (at least here in Spain).
We are switching away from it, and personally, I do not recommend it anymore.
Re: Samwers Clone Stripe
#47Re: Samwers Clone Stripe
#48I don't get it. Why do US net startups very often make the same mistake of not expanding into the whole world quickly? It took eBay something like 4 years to go to Germany, by which time there was a local clone there that proved to be uncatchable. The expensive result was that eBay had to buy the clone (Alando) for 43 million dollars to become relevant. Kickstarter is still US-only. Stripe as well. So are countless o…
Groupon took your advice and (in my opinion) has contributed to their poor numbers. The problem is that when an established US company looks to expand, those countries tend to put a premium on expansion there. For example, if Groupon expands to the UK, sales people will ask for more money up front and put a premium on "acting faster".
Oh, and pretty much what everyone else mentioned... It's extremely difficult for any newly establish company to estimate how much red-tape (translate -> money) they will need to go through in order to trade in another country.
Re: Samwers Clone Stripe
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
The founders don't have the local knowledge and contacts to get through the regulatory hoops involved in launching a new payment gateway in dozens of countries. I think there was an article on HN where someone was talking about how these kinds of startups (the ones with difficult regulatory barriers) are the only ones that you should consider cloning in other countries for this very reason.
> The founders don't have the local knowledge and contacts to get through the regulatory hoops involved in launching a new payment gateway in dozens of countries With the millions of dollars these companies get from investors you'd think they could hire local knowledge to figure it out for them.
And how do these founders know/trust local knowledge? Imagine trying to deal with an Eastern European market or Middle Eastern market, where bribes ("legal" and illegal) are necessary. How do you know you're not getting ripped off?
Re: Samwers Clone Stripe
#50I don't get it. Why do US net startups very often make the same mistake of not expanding into the whole world quickly? It took eBay something like 4 years to go to Germany, by which time there was a local clone there that proved to be uncatchable. The expensive result was that eBay had to buy the clone (Alando) for 43 million dollars to become relevant. Kickstarter is still US-only. Stripe as well. So are countless o…
Groupon took your advice and (in my opinion) has contributed to their poor numbers. The problem is that when an established US company looks to expand, those countries tend to put a premium on expansion there. For example, if Groupon expands to the UK, sales people will ask for more money up front and put a premium on "acting faster". Oh, and pretty much what everyone else mentioned... It's extremely difficult for an…
Facebook didn't do the mistake of buying the local German copycat (StudiVZ). StudiVZ is now dead.