CEO Patrick Collison said he was “hugely excited by a swathe of markets across Asia” as the in-app payments company Stripe debuted in Japan.
Collison told Bloomberg TV the Japanese launch was “a really significant project” that took two years of planning and had involved “significant sensitivity and adaptation to local markets”.
Despite his excitement, the Stripe chief and founder was reticent about the next launch market in Asia.
The Japanese launch followed a debut in Singapore two weeks ago. And the Stripe service is already available in Australia, its first Asian market.
According to the company’s website, Stripe has private betas in both Hong Kong and New Zealand, offering a clue to the location of the company’s next commercial launch in the region.
Core features of the Stripe service include instant setup, support for a large number of currencies, the ability to build marketplaces and fast and frequent transfers.
The firm was drawn to Japan by a growing startup scene, as well as identifying a local appetite to build new types of businesses (like SaaS companies and marketplaces), and an interest among some Japanese companies in expanding to global markets.
During its Japanese beta, Stripe worked with Peatix, which builds tools to manage communities; translation firm Gengo; and airline ANA.
Five-year old Stripe is commercially available in 13 countries (including Australia, Japan and Singapore). Nine are in Europe and the tenth is the US.
In addition, it has 12 markets in beta. In addition to Hong Kong and New Zealand, eight are in Europe and the other two are Brazil and Mexico, indicating Latin America is a market where Stripe has its eyes fixed, in addition to Asia.
Comments