SoftBank’s PayPay App Showcases Masayoshi Son’s Clout in Japan
- Firm chases gross merchant value growth of over 30% this year
- PayPay seen to be next in SoftBank’s arsenal of possible IPOs
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PayPay Corp. is one of SoftBank Group Corp. 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 ($67 million) in a cashback campaign in 10 days shortly after its 2018 debut, winning millions of users who crashed PayPay’s system multiple times.