SoftBank, Yahoo Japan and Paytm make mobile payments mammoth
The titanic trio of SoftBank, Yahoo Japan and India’s Paytm have ganged up to unveil PayPay – a smartphone payment service using barcodes that’s coming in autumn this year.
A beast is born in the east
To make this happen, SoftBank and Yahoo Japan have created the PayPay Corporation, a joint venture.
PayPay will team up with Paytm, a SoftBank Vision Fund portfolio company, to use Paytm’s technology and expertise in mobile payments.
According to SoftBank, in Japan cash is still the mainstream payment methodology, with the current cashless payment ratio remaining at 20%.
Consequently, the Japanese government is taking measures to raise the cashless payment ratio to 40% by 2025, with a long-term goal of 80%, the highest level globally.
Naturally, the three firms want to tap into this succulent market.
Paytm is already in a healthy place – with 300 million customers and eight million merchants.
PayPay, SoftBank, Yahoo Japan and Paytm will look to expand the number of users by including the customer base of SoftBank and Yahoo! Wallet. The latter comprises approximately 40 million accounts.
With the launch of PayPay, Yahoo Japan will terminate Yahoo! Wallet’s current smartphone settlement function. The termination date has not been decided yet.
The PayPay platform will be integrated with Yahoo! Japan ID, giving existing Yahoo! Wallet customers the option to use PayPay functions within Yahoo! Japan’s smartphone app.
To quote the three witches from Macbeth: “When shall we three meet again. In thunder, lightning, or in rain?”
“When the hurly-burly’s done, when the battle’s lost and won.”
SoftBank, Yahoo Japan and Paytm are a powerful trio. They probably reckon their chances of victory are high.
