Japanese mobile payment company PayPay has 10 million users and 1 million merchants

Japanese mobile payment company PayPay recently announced that after 10 months of operation, the company has reached 10 million users, and 1 million merchants have accepted PayPay payments, making more than 100 million payments.

PayPay, a joint venture between Paytm, India’s largest mobile payments company, and SoftBank and Yahoo Japan, was established in June 2018 and opened in October.

Paytm enters the Japanese market because of its daily trading habits similar to India’s, with daily transactions in both countries paid mainly in cash, and credit cards are not accepted in most Japanese locations, such as hospitals and supermarkets.

Like India, cash dominates most day-to-day transactions in Japan. Large health clinics and supermarkets often refuse plastic CARDS and demand cash instead.




Paytm, India’s largest mobile payment company, which has 10 million customers in Japan through its joint venture PayPay, said it was working to expand its presence in the international market.

In addition to 10 million users, PayPay is now supported by 1 million merchant partners in Japan and Vijay Shekhar Sharma, a local store. Paytm’s founder and chief executive said Thursday. So far, he claims, mobile payment apps have been traded more than 100 million times across the country.

PayPay’s biggest competitor is Line Pay. As of February this year, Line had 80 million users in Japan and 32 million people using Line Pay. Other competitors include Rakuten Pay, Origami Pay, Merpay and Watermelon Card Suica. Japan’s 7-11 and FamilyMart have also launched their own mobile payments, but both have had problems with stolen payments and overloaded systems.



Line and PayPay are in a strong race, and like PayPay, Line is not short of money. Earlier this year, Line Pay announced a 30 billion yen ($282 million) incentive campaign to boost usage of its payment service. Line has more than 80 million users in Japan, of which 32 million use its payment service as of February. Japan has about 120 million Internet users.

PayPay maintains its 10 billion yen ($94 million) marketing campaign, in which some customers make some money by making a certain number of transactions and participating in referrals. In a statement, PayPay said Thursday that advancing it “will strive to create a society where people can buy anything in every corner of the country through cashless payments, providing our users with a secure and reliable service. “

Currently, there are more than 250 million Paytm users in India. Paytm’s major shareholders include alibaba, softbank and mediatek. Buffett’s Berkshire hathaway has also invested in its parent, One97 Communications. In addition to mobile payments, Paytm is also involved in online retail and financial services.