Asad Umar: Paypal or Paypal like service is launching in 3-4 months

[Joker99]

Responding to a query regarding the government's plan on facilitating online purchases through the use of a global payment system, the finance minister said: "A platform like PayPal or its equivalent is required in the country for the immensely talented youth to be able to do online business. Just yesterday I had a meeting with a company that is an equivalent to PayPal, and we will have either Paypal or a similar system in the country soon."

I don't think it is Paypal. Rather Alipay since we already have confirmed news from Telenor's CEO about them starting service by end of 2018.

My question is, will it do any good to the freelance community? Alipay may have a lot of use in China but I have never come across Alipay as a payment method for Withdrawal for example (or even payment) on Shopping or Freelance service websites. Most of the clients that people end up getting are non-Chinese so at end of the day, what use will Alipay be? We already have enough withdrawal methods for services at this point in time but I don't think any service can beat Paypal itself?

What good should be expected with the rise of Alipay? We already have several local payment gateways for Debit/Credit Card transactions. Alipay looks like it will just add to that.

P.S. Found an article about this if anyone's interested:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-ant-financial-completely-change-pakistani-retail-omer-salimullah/

 

[ali tayyab]

None of the paypal competitors have its coverage. So unless its paypal it is not going to be very useful. Secondly, I could be wrong here as I am not around here a lot anymore, many of the services can also be accessed from Pakistan right now legally like google wallet (i think you cant transfer from bank account but can from debit or credit card). Skrill is as far as i remember also legally accessible.

So if its not paypal it is not really going to be worth it for the majority.

my 2c

 

[assasin42o]

As the guy above said, if it's not PayPal, it's useless.
India launched Paytm, an alternative to PP (when it wasn't available there) and failed. We already have alternatives like mcb lite for online purchases but their use is also very limited.

Sent from my Phone

 

[Radz]

There isn't any alternative of PayPal, We have different ways of Receiving PayPal Payments but its not equals to having an PayPal Account. Sometimes I needs to send Payments too which i can only sends through PayPal Account or i have to go through different exchanges (most of them are scams & Charge Sevice Fee) Bringing PayPal alternative (AliPay) is good but not equals to having PayPal. Its like shifting to Telegram from WhatsApp. No Matter how good telegram is WhatsApp has most userbase. Out of my 150 contacts only 3-4 are on telegram. Case will be similar with PayPal Alternative.

And bringing Aliexpress/AliBaba/AliPay is not a wise decision in long run, They will eatup our ecommerce industry. Most of sellers are from China and promoting chainese products, yes we are getting products at cheap price but we are sending dollars which might effect dollar rate in Pakistan.

 

[imadsani]

Anyone here know Faisal Khan? He championed to get Paypal to start operations in Pakistan long before any of the politicians even knew what it was. Turns out, revealed in an open letter between him and Paypal, Pakistan was (still isn't) not a viable enough market to launch.

I attended a talk at Arfa Tech Park where he was speaking, he said we don't even have the proper mechanisms in place to get the numbers Paypal was asking for to evaluate our market.

 

[HYD3R]

dollar ka rate kam karo choro pp ko

 

[frac]

dollar ka rate kam karo choro pp ko

Why not both?

And also, dollar isn't going down to 100 or less in any fewer than 2-3 years (if it goes down at all).

 

[Journeys End]

Paypal was once approached by SBP to alleviate their concerns and facilitate country wide lauch but the company declined citing reasons that our financial system is still immature, has easy fraudulent transactions issues blah blah etc etc. usually the companies approach SBP not the other way around so obviously this was big setback. although this happened a few years ago but i can assure u that paypal is NOT coming to Pakistan anytime soon and the government has no plans to take the anymore steps.

 

[Quadzilla]

As the guy above said, if it's not PayPal, it's useless.
India launched Paytm, an alternative to PP (when it wasn't available there) and failed. We already have alternatives like mcb lite for online purchases but their use is also very limited.

Sent from my Phone

Lol, who said PayTM failed? On the contrary, the godfather himself (Warren Buffett) is going to be investing in that "small time startup" you've mentioned. PayTM has grown all over India bro. And also AliPay is much larger than you think, infact its the only platform that can give PayPal a run for its money, like it drove off PayPal from China back in the days.


Edit: And yes PayPal won't be coming to Pak anytime soon, it simply isnt compatible with our banking infrastructure at the moment. Asad was probably referring to AliPay or PayPak.

 

[assasin42o]

PayTM has grown all over India bro..

This.

Sent from my Phone

 

[frac]

AliPay doesn't seem like it's very relevant when it comes to expanding business worldwide. Maybe another option to local alternatives if it turns out well, we still need the real thing though.

 

[Quadzilla]

This.

Sent from my Phone

Humble beginnings I'd say becoming the largest financial institution of India in such a short span of time is anything but remarkable. This is exactly why PayTM is much more scary than PayPal or AliPay, in its significantly smaller lifespan it (a digital institution) has dwarfed all of India's banks and has outgrown them to the point that you can get cigarettes using it. PayPal didn't magically 'appear' with worldwide acceptance, it took its time and capitalized on an unprecedented idea.

Point is, it will take time for a formidable competitor to appear for PayPal BUT if its anyone, it has got to be AliPay - only they have the balls to do it.

 

[golabucha]

PayPal ko goli maroe .we need amazon in Pakistan

 

[ali tayyab]

Market size has nothing to do with paypal's presence in a territory. Regulations and compliance with international best practices are.
Paypal is present in Sri Lanka, Tonga, Ethiopia, Eritrea and many other markets which are financially much smaller than we are. Heck it is present in Nigeria which has had one of the most corrupt regimes in the world. It is present in Nepal.
Our problem is not our size but compliance

 

[assasin42o]

Humble beginnings I'd say becoming the largest financial institution of India in such a short span of time is anything but remarkable. This is exactly why PayTM is much more scary than PayPal or AliPay, in its significantly smaller lifespan it (a digital institution) has dwarfed all of India's banks and has outgrown them to the point that you can get cigarettes using it. PayPal didn't magically 'appear' with worldwide acceptance, it took its time and capitalized on an unprecedented idea.

Point is, it will take time for a formidable competitor to appear for PayPal BUT if its anyone, it has got to be AliPay - only they have the balls to do it.

Only tech savvies like us know that. Therefore, you can't sit on national television and claim that you're bringing an "alternate" to PayPal. There's no alternate. Here our public has already started celebrating that news. If I talk about AliPay, it's of no use to me. My MCBLite card works on more sites right now than AliPay ever will in the next 5 years, so I don't know how is AliPay helping me.

I don't know if you watched that interview, the host asked about the solution for freelancers for accepting payments from international buyers. Even if AliPay comes, the problem is still going to be there since hardly anybody in US or Europe uses that as a payment method.

 

[Faizanulhaq]

no use if it isnt paypal

 

[golabucha]

Asad umar is just like previous finance ministers .i am pretty sure god has fixed s special place in hell for these finance ministers of pakistan

 

[Pleasant]

Jab tak Israel se taluqat sahi nahi hote paypal nahi ayega

 

[gullfounder]

Jab tak Israel se taluqat sahi nahi hote paypal nahi ayega

Are you saying Saudi Arabia has better relation with Israel then Pakistan? As Paypal works there.

 

[golabucha]

Are you saying Saudi Arabia has better relation with Israel then Pakistan? As Paypal works there.

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43632905[/FONT]