• pivot_root@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      At least in the US, it’s full of regulatory red tape that was designed to pull up the ladder behind the current large payment processors.

      Even Musk and his ample bribe money, under the most corrupt administration in decades, hasn’t managed to get full approval for his “X Twitter Money” payment service.

      • absentbird@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Couldn’t they just start accepting ACH to get around the payment processors? Or is that overly complicated?

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          Should be feasible, many of my bills allow it. If there’s an issue w/ lag, they could always allow it only for wallet top-ups and people could use that.

          But I think the issue is that if they accept these payment processors at all, they need to comply w/ their policies. Completely cutting them off could significantly hurt sales.

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Steam can 100% enter any market they want, especially something entirely digital like online payment processing. That’s pretty closely related to what they do already. They just have to have a reason to want to do so.

        Steam makes a reported $3.5 million per employee from commissions alone. Possibly as much at $19 million per head across the board. To put that into perspective, Facebook, one of the most profitable companies on the planet, averages a net income of $780,000 per employee, and Apple at $476,000 per employee.

        https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/valves-reported-profit-per-head-from-steam-commissions-is-out-there-and-at-usd3-5-million-per-employee-it-makes-apple-and-facebook-look-like-a-lemonade-stand/

        Steam may not be as large as those companies, but they’re so effectively streamlined. So much of their profits come from existing systems that only need minimal maintenance as opposed to needing to constantly develop new products. It is a well-oiled money printing machine at this point. And nothing they do is based on any sort of speculation bubble threatening to burst at any point.

        • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 day ago

          This is BS. Whatever payment processor they develop will need to interact with all of the major credit card processors: VISA, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express. All credit and debit cards use these four brands as the backing network. There is no way around it.

          Nobody is going to add a new credit card brand, not even Steam. Amazon doesn’t do it. Twitter doesn’t do it. Ebay doesn’t do it. Nobody does. If they did, they would face immediate retribution from the VMDA empire. Their payments would cease, and Steam would collapse overnight.