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I gave up on Stripe because they clearly are a US-focused company, and do not have a global outlook. I find it disappointing that after so many years of being i

I gave up on Stripe because they clearly are a US-focused company, and do not have a global outlook. I find it disappointing that after so many years of being in business, their payment processing services are still only available to a few dozen countries. This for example makes it impossible to rely on them to build a global marketplace with Stripe Connect accepting merchants from all over the world. Stripe is not for those seeking to run truly international businesses. We've been patient, but we eventually realized that they simply do not care. We care about Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, but they do not. We do not trust them to prioritize the global availability of their offerings at this point, and as a result we no longer even bother checking out their offerings. What's the point if instead of empowering us, they restrict our business model.

pqdbr 5y ago
I haven't given up on them, but LATAM is definitely not their focus and we've moved 95% of our payment volume to a local payment processor, even tough we were one of the first private beta testers back in 2015 (wow, it's been 6 years already). My angle is in Brazil. Even after all these years, they still don't support monthly installments, which is literally a single line API param that, honestly, I don't know any other payment gateway in Brazil that doesn't support it. Monthly installments is a huge deal in Brazil. They also only now started the private beta of Boletos, which is unfortunate since Boletos are being phased out in Brazil due to the new PIX, which allow for instant payments 24/7. So they are basically releasing just now a feature that nobody really wants anymore. Stripe connect also isn't available (AFAIK only the "standard" account is available, which mandates for Stripe onboarding and can't accommodate any white label marketplace integration). The lack of focus is noticeable even from their marketing pages. Notice how in https://stripe.com/br/connect https://stripe.com/br/connect the explanation for "Cobranças diretas" and "Cobranças de destino" are exactly the same (the text "Os compradores fazem transações diretamente com os vendedores, mas quase nunca notam a existência da plataforma, que pode cobrar tarifas de transação" appears in both), making it impossible to understand the difference, while if you visit https://stripe.com/us/connect https://stripe.com/us/connect you see two different texts for each option. Their support team has always responded quickly and politely, but we've had an impossible time trying to understand how they could allow us collect payments from abroad as a marketplace operating in Brazil, and that's even pointing out we didn't rule out opening a US-based company via Stripe Atlas if that was necessary. Lots of contradictory information and when we pressed on, they always end with them noticing that Brazil is still in preview and they still can't operate properly with Connect in Brazil. Which is weird, considering it's LATAM's biggest market. This release of Stripe Identity missing out Brazil on launch, even tough it's a country that badly needs antifraud solutions, is only one more evidence of this.
- marciovm123 5y ago
  We're making up for lost time in Brazil and hope to change your mind in the next 6 months. I'd love your feedback on installments, Pix, and Custom Connect. Can you reach out to Marcio@Stripe? Thanks for the marketing typo, on it.
  - pqdbr 5y ago
    That's great to hear Marcio. I've emailed you. Cheers.

pqdbr 5y ago

I haven't given up on them, but LATAM is definitely not their focus and we've moved 95% of our payment volume to a local payment processor, even tough we were one of the first private beta testers back in 2015 (wow, it's been 6 years already). My angle is in Brazil. Even after all these years, they still don't support monthly installments, which is literally a single line API param that, honestly, I don't know any other payment gateway in Brazil that doesn't support it. Monthly installments is a huge deal in Brazil. They also only now started the private beta of Boletos, which is unfortunate since Boletos are being phased out in Brazil due to the new PIX, which allow for instant payments 24/7. So they are basically releasing just now a feature that nobody really wants anymore. Stripe connect also isn't available (AFAIK only the "standard" account is available, which mandates for Stripe onboarding and can't accommodate any white label marketplace integration). The lack of focus is noticeable even from their marketing pages. Notice how in https://stripe.com/br/connect https://stripe.com/br/connect the explanation for "Cobranças diretas" and "Cobranças de destino" are exactly the same (the text "Os compradores fazem transações diretamente com os vendedores, mas quase nunca notam a existência da plataforma, que pode cobrar tarifas de transação" appears in both), making it impossible to understand the difference, while if you visit https://stripe.com/us/connect https://stripe.com/us/connect you see two different texts for each option. Their support team has always responded quickly and politely, but we've had an impossible time trying to understand how they could allow us collect payments from abroad as a marketplace operating in Brazil, and that's even pointing out we didn't rule out opening a US-based company via Stripe Atlas if that was necessary. Lots of contradictory information and when we pressed on, they always end with them noticing that Brazil is still in preview and they still can't operate properly with Connect in Brazil. Which is weird, considering it's LATAM's biggest market. This release of Stripe Identity missing out Brazil on launch, even tough it's a country that badly needs antifraud solutions, is only one more evidence of this.

marciovm123 5y ago
We're making up for lost time in Brazil and hope to change your mind in the next 6 months. I'd love your feedback on installments, Pix, and Custom Connect. Can you reach out to Marcio@Stripe? Thanks for the marketing typo, on it.
- pqdbr 5y ago
  That's great to hear Marcio. I've emailed you. Cheers.