Stripe installs payment in chatbots

The American payment specialist Stripe has just signed a new partnership with a French player in the chatbot market. The objective is clearly to impose the alternative payment solution within this type of communication service. For Stripe, in addition to opening up a new sales channel, this initiative represents a means of disrupting the market.

FACTS

• Botnation is a French platform for creating scalable chatbots. It has just signed a unique partnership with Stripe, the American online payment specialist.

• The aim of this strategic partnership is to allow Stripe to add a payment module to its chatbots.

• Bank card payments (CB, Visa, Mastercard, American Express) will initially be concerned, but Stripe plans to quickly open up payment options to crypto-currencies and micro-payment type transactions (via Apple Pay or Google Pay for example).

• All types of content (photos, videos, music files, online training, ticketing) as well as goods and services will thus be able to be marketed and paid for within chatbots.

CHALLENGES

• Transforming chatbots into real sales channels: Stripe and Botnation plan to allow brands to make sales directly via their chatbots, opening up another avenue for online commerce.

• Competing with the web giants: Competitive barriers are blurring between incumbent financial players, innovative payment service providers and technology giants. Each is now trying to provide multi-service offerings in which messaging and chatbots have a central role. Stripe's initiative is a good example of this. While in the United States, Facebook announced the implementation of a payment functionality within its messaging platform in 2016. An aborted attempt, which it is nevertheless relaunching today through the integration of its Novi wallet within the whats'app.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Stripe is currently working hard on extending its offer and diversifying. In addition to Botnation, it has also signed another important partnership with Klarna, the other payment disruptor.

• It is also looking beyond the boundaries of online payments to other future payment methods such as crypto-currencies, in which Stripe showed great interest only a month ago.