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US-based online payments gateway Stripe announced a full launch in France on Wednesday.
During its beta test in France, which lasted for over a year, the gateway saw “thousands” of businesses test the platform, including large companies, software firms, and online marketplaces, according to a company blog post. The launch marks Stripe’s tenth overall fully live market, according to Fortune .
For context, Stripe allows users to integrate code into their websites in order to more easily accept card and other electronic payments for digital transactions. The firm was most recently valued at $5 billion after a large investment from Visa last summer.
The launch indicates the growing popularity of gateways as digital commerce becomes more common. Stripe’s peers are seeing quick growth. PayPal-owned gateway Braintree counted 219 million cards on file in Q4 2015, marking 111% growth over the 104 million it held in the same period a year earlier.
Stripe is trying to become more competitive by adding more markets and additional features. Stripe is rapidly expanding — the firm is currently beta testing in 15 countries on top of its fully live markets, according to Fortune. And the firm continues to add e-commerce features, like Alipay integration and a new suite of buy buttons, in order to entice merchants.
Stripe’s expansion overseas is evidence of the ongoing evolution of the payments ecosystem, which continues to evolve seemingly every day.
Evan Bakker and John Heggestuen, analysts at BI Intelligence , Business Insider’s premium research service, have compiled a detailed report on the payments ecosystem that drills into the industry to explain how a broad range of transactions are processed, including prepaid and store cards, as well as revealing which types […]
