PayPal’s expansion on the international market has been quite impressive. Japan, however, remained out of reach. PayPal’s parent company and most important channel, Ebay, exited the country a decade ago, failing to compete with Yahoo Japan at that time.
But PayPal has never given up on Japan, which has the third largest economy in the world in terms of consumer purchasing power. The company now gets another chance in the market as PayPal has formed a joint venture with Japan’s leading Internet company, Softbank, to compete in the local e-payment market. From a Finextra article.
The new approach – PayPal’s first JV – sees the company tap in to Softbank’s local market knowledge, 29 million mobile subscribers and vast distribution network including thousands of retail outlets and sales staff across Japan.
The pair say that they expect to “revolutionise the Japanese retail commerce market” worth $1.7 trillion in 2011, and support the growth of 4.7 million small businesses, which account for 99% of all businesses and 70% of all employment in the country.
The JV’s first move is to launch PayPal Here, the new dongle and app combo that allows users to accept card payments with their mobile phones, in Japan, a nation where more than 31 million smartphones are expected to be shipped this year.
The two companies also have follow-up plans in the mobile area as well.
Click here to read more from Finextra.
