Softbank, PayPal to form $25m payment JV

Japan's Softbank Mobile and PayPal have jointly formed a new $25 million digital payments joint venture.

 

The venture, PayPal Japan, will offer digital wallet services for online, mobile and offline transactions.

 

Softbank and PayPal will each invest $12.5 million in the PayPal Japan venture, and will each elect three directors to the company board.

 

In advance of the formation of the JV, the companies have collaborated to launch mobile payment service PayPal Here in the Japanese market. Japan is the fifth country to receive the service after the USA, Canada, Hong Kong and Australia.

 

PayPal Here aims to allow small businesses to accept payments using a mobile app or an encrypted card reader.

 

PayPal and Softbank will offer the PayPal Here mobile app for free, and charge around 1,200 yen ($15) for the card reader. Merchant fees will be a flat 5% of a transaction.

 

Online retail giant eBay bought PayPal in October 2002 for $1.5 billion in stock.

 

The e-commerce partnership was announced days after MasterCard announced its own mobile wallet service, PayPass Wallet.