What's New in Payments

Alipay and WeChat Pay to support common QR code standard for Japan

Japan to unify mobile payment codes, enlisting Chinese giants — Nikkei Asian Review — “Line and Alibaba Group Holding are among five major internet businesses from Japan and China that will standardize QR codes that are scanned to make payments via smartphones in Japan, Nikkei has learned. The others joining this undertaking are online flea market operator Mercari and mobile carrier NTT Docomo from Japan and Tencent Holdings’ WeChat Pay from China.”


What's New in Payments

Line sets out plans to roll out mobile payments in Japan

Chat app Line plots finance ‘revolution’ with mobile payments — Nikkei Asian Review — “Line, the operator of Japan’s leading chat app, is pushing hard into the banking sphere with plans to aggressively expand in mobile payments, aiming to get its 75 million users hooked on transactions without the fees imposed by conventional banks… Line is rolling out a version of its app that will let small and midsize merchants accept QR code-based payments via Line Pay. Transaction surcharges will be waived for the first three years, and the system costs nothing to set up.”


What's New in Payments

Line Pay aims to convert 1m Japanese merchants to QR payments with free transactions for three years

Japan’s Line Pay throws down gauntlet to Alipay — Nikkei Asian Review — “Line has sought to minimize the hassle for retailers by allowing the retailer to use the service by simply downloading a free app on a smartphone… Retailers can also send messages to individual shoppers later, such as sales promotions. The service can be used free of charge for the next three years… There are also incentives for customers, offering them loyalty points valued at 3% to 5% of every purchase they make with Line Pay.”


What's New in Payments

Messaging service Line looks to cryptocurrencies for payments

Line explores cryptocurrencies for payment services, sources say — Bloomberg — “The messaging provider is in discussions with multiple companies on using cryptocurrencies for payment services including Line Pay, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The broader goal is to create products that keep users within Line’s ecosystem and keep them coming back to the app, increasing ‘stickiness,’ they said.”


What's New in Payments

Messaging app Line reports 40m mobile payment users

A Line Pay milestone: 10 million transactions monthly — Line — “Line announced today that Line Pay, a ‘smartphone wallet’ service for the Line platform, has reached 10m global transactions per month as of the end of October 2017. Along with that major milestone, Line Pay has also achieved ¥55bn (approximately US$482m) worth of transactions monthly — or some ¥300bn cumulative from Jan 1 to Nov 2, 2017… Line Pay has also reached 40 million global registered users.”