In a tweet by Silicon Valley-based Stripe’s CEO, Patrick Collison, he seemed to confirm that the company has commenced with beta testing in Malaysia. This tweet follows the company’s talked about expansion into Southeast Asia. Setting up Stripe Malaysia was seemingly just a matter of time once the company asked about setting up a Singapore-based hub.
We’re kicking off our betas—and seeing our first customers go live—in 6 new countries today! Delighted to take our first steps in Estonia, Poland, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia, and Malaysia. 🇪🇪🇵🇱🇬🇷🇱🇹🇱🇻🇲🇾
You can sign up for these betas at https://t.co/RhO6idSghy.
— Patrick Collison (@patrickc) February 6, 2019
Stripe is one of Silicon Valley’s more prominent payments processing companies, producing API software that now services Fortune 500 companies.
The company is famous for starting with just a few lines of code, and slowly growing their offerings as demands for online purchases grew thanks to digitisation of retail firms, and rise of software-based subscription services like Spotify.
According to Fortune, Stripe’s roots lie in small businesses that look to dabble in e-commerce, but the platform it has since gained coveted customers such as Google, Microsoft, Uber, Spotify, and Salesforce, among others.
With a stated Southeast Asia strategy, it wouldn’t surprise us if Stripe stays true to its initial SME strategy during its expansion. It’s been a good period to run an SME here in Malaysia as both the government and banks wake up to the power of the small business in driving income, and slowly, solutions are introduced to address their needs.
But that could serve as a double-edged sword for Stripe here, with a scene that is rife with competition. For now, it seems like volume is the game for Stripe’s expansion though, and it will remain to be seen if this Silicon Valley darling can find a foothold in Malaysia.
Featured Image Credit: Flickr
