←back to thread

Stripe Is Now a $20B Company

(www.bloomberg.com)
563 points jonknee | 1 comments | 26 Sep 18 18:04 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
Firebrand ◴[27 Sep 18 02:37 UTC] No.18081755[source]▶
So maybe I don’t understand because I’m a dumb-dumb lay person, but what does Stripe do differently from all the other payment processors that has given its rise and hype.

Is Stripe popular because its developer friendly? What makes it better than Apple Pay, PayPal, and Square? Normally, when I shop online, I’m usually given an option to type my credit card info or use my PayPal account. Where does Stripe fit into all of this?

replies(5): >>18081807 #>>18081836 #>>18081853 #>>18081979 #>>18082705 #
1. kennydude ◴[27 Sep 18 07:48 UTC] No.18082705[source]▶
Stripe is a payment processor for online payments. They are a company which take those credit card details you enter and actually take your money on behalf of the shop.

Apple Pay is supported by Stripe, so it's a non-competitor (Apple Pay is just a way of giving your card details to a processor).

PayPal is the closest competitor, but their APIs are quite old (although improving) and when Stripe launched PayPal's pricing was very cmoplex. Also people just don't like the PayPal model for business.

Square is a payment processor, mostly, for physical payments mostly seemingly for hipster coffee shops. They do online payments, but nowhere near the same level Stripe do them.