PayPay is one of SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son¡¯s success stories, going from zero to more than 60 million users in five years. The payments app now seeks to keep its pace of double-digit growth with help from other SoftBank portfolio companies, according to its co-chief operating officer.
Tokyo-based PayPay propelled itself to prominence in the country¡¯s fragmented cashless payments landscape, thanks to aggressive subsidies and SoftBank¡¯s support in signing on merchants around Japan. It spent ?10 billion in a cashback campaign in 10 days shortly after its 2018 debut, winning millions of users who crashed PayPay¡¯s system multiple times.
Seen to be next in SoftBank¡¯s initial public offering pipeline, the startup now holds two-thirds¡¯ share in QR-code payments in a country where cash remains king. A partnership with Japan¡¯s Line messaging service, under SoftBank¡¯s telecom arm, would help PayPay win another 30 million users in the coming years, according to co-chief operating officer Masamichi Yasuda.
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