They could, but in Europe each country has at least one local payment systems. It was just more convenient to provide a few global players instead of dozens local ones. Many online shops here too is just local player + visa/Mastercard. That might change now that the global players get too controlling. (Not speaking for entire EU, just the part I visited.)
That is true, I am also in EU, and I use Visa for purchases outside Denmark and also for Steam.
We also have local payment systems that are mostly exclusive to Denmark. Many have Visa but not all, so only accepting Visa may lose Steam some business.
To cover Denmark 100% they will need to accept Dankort or MobilePay by Danske Bank. Everybody here have both of those, and they are both cheap and excellent to use.
I personally don’t have PayPal because I despise the company for their high rates.
Many online shops here too is just local player + visa/Mastercard.
In principle that would be the same for Steam, local player is the local service for the country the customer is in.
Steam is multinational, and has business enough in each country to support the local players. It’s extra work to set up, but also cheaper prices for Steam than Paypal and also cheaper than Visa in most cases.
So I think they’d make money on it over using PayPal.
The online payment world is still a lot more fragmented.
Valve literally only needs an EU bank account. Doesn’t help the rest of the world but the outlandish claim was that within Europe Valve would need to support “at least one local payment system” per country and that’s just wrong.
I believe Valve already supports all the local payment systems in Europe, though they’ll only show it to you if you’re in one of those countries (the payment processing flow asks you which country are you paying from upfront and then uses that to display the various payment systems available for that country).
Same for GOG, by the way.
The problem is mainly that to sell to anywhere in Europe a seller has to integrate with the many local payment systems out there, which is a lot of work for a small seller.
Mind you, you often can pay stuff online in Europe via bank transfer if it’s within the Eurozone (and the fact that it works from anywhere to anywhere in the Eurozone for the same cost as a local transfer, rather than just locally in each country is exactly because SEPA has been standardized and the regulator has forced banks to charge the same for transfers between different countries in the Eurozone as they do for transfers within their own country), but it’s not reliably available in sellers and is a bit more convoluted than pure payment systems (basically you have to use your bank’s online site or app to transfer money to the account the seller provides you).
No actual payment systems are standardized across Europe yet, though various country-specific ones have been getting together and setting up cross-compatibility, but none of those covers more than a handful of countries.
As I wrote elsewhere, Steam already supports all the European national payment systems, which are all more convenient than bank transfers.
(I actually tested it when writing another post and the Steam payment processing flow first asks you the country you’re paying for and then lists the payment systems for that country, and there I could see the standard national one of the country I gave)
GOG too also supports all the European national payment systems (I know because I switched to using those after the whole VISA/MasterCard/PayPal censorship crap happened).
Mind you, a lot of sellers in Europe do actually support paying by bank transfer (which goes via SEPA) but a lot don’t, plus it’s a bit less convenient than a dedicate payment system (though if you do the bank transfer from a banking app in your smartphone it’s reasonably simple plus some of those payment systems are really just a convenience layer - say an app scanning a QR-code for automated payment - over the whole “open the transfer screen and manually enter 20-something digits and an euro amount”).
Mind you, a lot of sellers in Europe do actually support paying by bank transfer (which goes via SEPA) but a lot don’t
This is not about what “a lot of sellers” do, it’s what Valve could do as an easy alternative in one big region of the world.
though if you do the bank transfer from a banking app in your smartphone it’s reasonably simple plus some of those payment systems are really just a convenience layer - say an app scanning a QR-code for automated payment - over the whole “open the transfer screen and manually enter 20-something digits and an euro amount”
Making SEPA money transfer by scanning a Qr code from the bank’s app is literally a thing. That’s how I paid the dentist a couple of months ago.
I would think Steam is big enough to make deals with local card vendors in individual countries.
I bet that would also be a lot cheaper than PayPal.
No need for Steam to make their own as some suggest, it would be insane to have a system just for one business.
They could, but in Europe each country has at least one local payment systems. It was just more convenient to provide a few global players instead of dozens local ones. Many online shops here too is just local player + visa/Mastercard. That might change now that the global players get too controlling. (Not speaking for entire EU, just the part I visited.)
That is true, I am also in EU, and I use Visa for purchases outside Denmark and also for Steam.
We also have local payment systems that are mostly exclusive to Denmark. Many have Visa but not all, so only accepting Visa may lose Steam some business.
To cover Denmark 100% they will need to accept Dankort or MobilePay by Danske Bank. Everybody here have both of those, and they are both cheap and excellent to use.
I personally don’t have PayPal because I despise the company for their high rates.
In principle that would be the same for Steam, local player is the local service for the country the customer is in.
Steam is multinational, and has business enough in each country to support the local players. It’s extra work to set up, but also cheaper prices for Steam than Paypal and also cheaper than Visa in most cases.
So I think they’d make money on it over using PayPal.
Huh? https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/integration/retail/sepa/html/index.en.html
That works for account to account transfers and in shop payment with your card. The online payment world is still a lot more fragmented.
Yeah, so? https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/what-we-do/sepa-instant-credit-transfer
Valve literally only needs an EU bank account. Doesn’t help the rest of the world but the outlandish claim was that within Europe Valve would need to support “at least one local payment system” per country and that’s just wrong.
I believe Valve already supports all the local payment systems in Europe, though they’ll only show it to you if you’re in one of those countries (the payment processing flow asks you which country are you paying from upfront and then uses that to display the various payment systems available for that country).
Same for GOG, by the way.
The problem is mainly that to sell to anywhere in Europe a seller has to integrate with the many local payment systems out there, which is a lot of work for a small seller.
Um, no? They can provide an IBAN and then you can pay almost instantly with most banks, with the worst ones taking a business day or two.
That’s for bank transfers, not for payments.
Mind you, you often can pay stuff online in Europe via bank transfer if it’s within the Eurozone (and the fact that it works from anywhere to anywhere in the Eurozone for the same cost as a local transfer, rather than just locally in each country is exactly because SEPA has been standardized and the regulator has forced banks to charge the same for transfers between different countries in the Eurozone as they do for transfers within their own country), but it’s not reliably available in sellers and is a bit more convoluted than pure payment systems (basically you have to use your bank’s online site or app to transfer money to the account the seller provides you).
No actual payment systems are standardized across Europe yet, though various country-specific ones have been getting together and setting up cross-compatibility, but none of those covers more than a handful of countries.
Let be blow your mind: Transfer money to Valve’s EU bank account, get the game in return.
As I wrote elsewhere, Steam already supports all the European national payment systems, which are all more convenient than bank transfers.
(I actually tested it when writing another post and the Steam payment processing flow first asks you the country you’re paying for and then lists the payment systems for that country, and there I could see the standard national one of the country I gave)
GOG too also supports all the European national payment systems (I know because I switched to using those after the whole VISA/MasterCard/PayPal censorship crap happened).
Mind you, a lot of sellers in Europe do actually support paying by bank transfer (which goes via SEPA) but a lot don’t, plus it’s a bit less convenient than a dedicate payment system (though if you do the bank transfer from a banking app in your smartphone it’s reasonably simple plus some of those payment systems are really just a convenience layer - say an app scanning a QR-code for automated payment - over the whole “open the transfer screen and manually enter 20-something digits and an euro amount”).
This is not about what “a lot of sellers” do, it’s what Valve could do as an easy alternative in one big region of the world.
Making SEPA money transfer by scanning a Qr code from the bank’s app is literally a thing. That’s how I paid the dentist a couple of months ago.