"Hey Patrick, what does the payments landscape look like in Japan?" I count 48 different ways you could pay at this convenience store. Plus cash, naturally, which is the most common one.pic.twitter.com/X5w1bzghsw
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Banks are pushing credit and debit cards very, very heavily, and convenience stores (which are intrinsically extremely high-volume low-margin businesses) are rolling out or partnering with app-based payment providers, which they believe will save money and gain share-of-spend.
The primary sales pitches for app-based payment methods are saving time (credit card payments historically take longer to process at Japanese registers than any other payment type; app-based is virtually instant) and saving money via point-back systems or integrated loyalty.
The subsidization to get installed userbases is *intense*. c.f. Paypay which spent 10 billion yen (~$100M USD) to purchase +/- 3 million users. (This fact is reasonably public; c.f. horse's mouth here: https://about.paypay.ne.jp/pr/pr20190808_01_en.pdf … )
"Where did all that money come from?" You have to ask which large Japanese tech company splashes 9 figures of USD at a time out of conviction that a new market is going to eventually be massive and they'd prefer to own all of it? ;)
I am curious, why does the Japanese government wants that? I understand the sales pitch you refered to if I look from the eye of a store owner, but why would the state want this transition? Better traceability to avoid money laundering?
Modernization (catching up to US, worries about being left behind by China, etc), desire to ensure better tax compliance and efficient public benefits administration (long story on that second one), perceived operational efficiencies (JP gov’t more technocratic than many), etc.
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