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Square now in Japan
- thairu 13y agoGreat work!
- rtpg 13y agoAt the HN meetup in Tokyo just last week people were complaining about the lack of something like Square in Japan. I guess things will get better now. Transforming your iPad/iPhone into a register is also pretty neat. I wonder if they'll look into putting an NFC reader in there and interface with all the IC cards here. Most people don't pay for their coffee by credit card.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jakerocheleau 13y agoComing from somebody who has always wanted to visit Tokyo, I can only imagine what the HN meetups are like.
- rtpg 13y agoyou can look at #hntokyo tag for some tweets about the events/pics. patio11 was there in all his glory as well.
- po 13y agoThe HN meetups in tokyo might not be as you imagine. :-) Japan is not as startup-friendly as you might suppose based on the amount of technology that comes out of the country, but things are changing here. In the past few years we've seen a lot more interest in entrepreneurship and startups, VC's, and incubators. We run a casual, low-pressure mixer kind of event about once a month. If you come to Japan, you can follow our blog (http://www.makeleaps.jp/blog/en/ http://www.makeleaps.jp/blog/en/) or signup on Doorkeeper to get notified of events. We get lots of visitors from abroad swinging through and we're always looking to help support other startups in Japan or small businesses trying to enter the market here. It's a really good crowd of people. There's also a meetup for HN readers in the kansai area of Japan if you're visiting there.
- radikalus 13y agoHow's the tech meetup scene in Tokyo these days? I'm there 3-4 times a year, but in previous years, I haven't really found much to crash.
- po 13y agoAs I said, it's starting to get more interesting. Sign up for our meetup newsletter and you'll get emailed about events and/or look me up when you come though.
- pwim 13y agoWe were complaining about the lack of Stripe. There have are some Japanese startups, such as Coiney (http://coiney.com/ http://coiney.com/) who are already doing the same thing as Square.
- rtpg 13y agoOh right, Stripe. I was thinking of the payment processing service, and somehow looked at this page and was able to keep cognitive dissonance that that and this POS tool was the same.
- _frog 13y agoSo I take it that Japan doesn't have EMV chips in their bank cards yet? I'm curious to see how Square tackles that when they hopefully expand to Europe and Australia.
- cdavid 13y agoMany don't, and basic debit accounts don't offer 'standard' cards (VISA, etc...). Japan also has a culture of using cash everywhere (I have seen people handling the equivalent of 1000s $ in cash numerous times), and it will be interesting to see what square can do there. Interesting challenges, and definitely something that needs improvements in Japan.
- mathrawka 13y agoI remember one of my first experience with a Japanese ATM... I put an extra 0 at the end and man, was I surprised when all that cash just kept coming out. I'd prefer to see Square be able to work with Suica, Pasmo, and all the other common ways that people actually pay for things here in Japan (besides cash of course)
- E14n 13y agoCash usage is mostly because people feel they are more likely to get cheated by the banks then be robbed (which is probably a pretty fair assessment of risk ;). I remember in the past making a $6,000 bank transfers by going to the convenience store ATM taking out money and going to the bank ATM. I don't know anywhere else in the world where I would feel safe doing that. There is also a lot of electronic money usage. Many people carry hundreds of dollars on their rail cards. Credit cards are considered risky in Japan. My understanding is that chargebacks are not enshrined in law so its not guaranteed and whether it is or not most people presume they will have to pay if their credit card is fraudulently charged. Convenience store payments are also popular because they are low risk and convenient.
- iloveponies 13y agoThey've had standalone systems like Edy and other systems tied into retailers on their phones for years. Given that Japan is hugely a cash based society, I wonder if this will really take off.
- pistoriusp 13y agoI'm looking forward to having them launch in the UK! Does anyone here have access to the beta?
- lleims 13y agoWhat beta?
- samwillis 13y agoI don't think Square can come to the UK in their current form. The card reader, although could technically work, will not be allowed by the credit card companies here. Square would need to make a small chip and pin reader for phones, similar to what PayPal have done. Are confusing Square with Stripe? If so I am in the beta and its brilliant. You can get in the beta by emailing them.
- madeofpalk 13y agoAnd you can't 'just' have a small chip reader. The PIN can only be entered in hardware, so you end up with something ridiculous like this http://www.ingenico.com/en/products/payment-terminals/mobility/ismp/ http://www.ingenico.com/en/products/payment-terminals/mobili...
- anxx 13y agoThis is curious, why can it only be entered in hardware? Is it a safety precaution?
- E14n 13y agoYou need control of the hardware to insure security. Think about what you could do if you run the credit card verification software in a debugger.
- samwillis 13y agoYes, if the pin number is entered into the software running on the phone then that software can easily be changed to log people pin numbers.
- dcw303 13y agoThis is definitely cool, but I'm really holding out for Stripe to come to Japan. An easy API for web app monetization would make a big difference.
- totallymike 13y agoI swear I'm never going to catch up to the fact that Square no longer means the folks who created Final Fantasy.
- ricardobeat 13y agoI've always known them as Square Enix.
- michaelhoffman 13y agoSquare Co. merged with Enix approximately 10 years ago.
- ricardobeat 13y agoIt's interesting how their homepage design 'looks japanese'. The woman's shoes; squeaky clean, almost artificial skin in the hand portraits; the tiled colorful boxes; flat buttons & footer. Something reminiscent of Uniqlo.
- aphexairlines 13y ago"almost artificial skin"?
- ricardobeat 13y agoYeah, look at those last two shots. Lots of retouching, no human hands look like that.
- bedspax 13y agoA topic from yesterday "Apple Is Using Sass, And They’re Doing It Wrong"… Also Square? https://divoqsdr0fzyc.cloudfront.net/assets/core-f5784136cd1228c990aba8ee86b517b8.css https://divoqsdr0fzyc.cloudfront.net/assets/core-f5784136cd1...