PayPay Corporation, a joint venture established by SoftBank Corp. (‘SoftBank’) and Yahoo Japan Corporation (‘Yahoo Japan’),  announced that the company will launch ‘PayPay’ smartphone payment services using barcodes (QR code) in fall 2018. PayPay Corporation will team up with India’s largest digital payment company Paytm, a SoftBank Vision Fund portfolio company, to utilize Paytm’s technology and expertise in mobile payments.

In Japan, cash (bank notes and coins) 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%^*1, the highest level globally. To aid these efforts, SoftBank and Yahoo Japan established PayPay Corporation^*2 in June 2018 and will launch its user-oriented payments platform in the fall 2018. This will promote the broader use of cashless payment in Japan and provide highly convenient services to both consumers and affiliated stores. Paytm leads the digital payments ecosystem in India and has pioneered the use of Barcode (QR)-based technology, offering seamless mobile payments to over 300 million customers and 8 million merchants.

PayPay Corporation, SoftBank, Yahoo Japan and Paytm will expand the number of users by including the customer base of SoftBank, and ‘Yahoo! Wallet’ which comprises approximately 40 million accounts. They will also deploy the platform using SoftBank’s sales know-how, and develop a tailored service offering leveraging Paytm’s technology. Their aim is for PayPay to become the top provider of smartphone payment services in terms of the number of users as well as affiliated stores.

With the launch of ‘PayPay,’ Yahoo Japan will terminate ‘Yahoo! Wallet’s’ current smartphone settlement function^*3 (termination date has not been decided). The ‘PayPay’ platform will be seamlessly integrated with Yahoo! JAPAN ID, giving existing ‘Yahoo! Wallet’ customers the option to use PayPay functions within Yahoo! JAPAN’s smartphone application.

Affiliated Stores Accepting PayPay Payment Services

Over time customers will be able to use the services at a wide range of stores from nationwide chain stores to individual merchants in each region.

Features of Main Functions

• Customers can select from two types of payment methods, namely credit cards and electronic money.
• Provide two methods, namely merchant reading the QR code displayed by the store with the user app and scanning the barcode (one-dimensional barcode, QR code) presented by the user at the cash register.

Business plan for affiliated stores

• In the “user-oriented code-reading format”, initial set up costs are low as the merchant only needs to display the code inside the shop. In addition, the service will be free to affiliate stores for the first three years from its launch.
• Future promotional activities are planned for participating merchants.

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