PayPay Leader Interview is a series of interviews with PayPay top executives that show a glimpse into their personalities and perspectives. In this installment, we sat with Masayoshi Yanase, Division Head of the Finance Business Strategy Division, Finance Business Group.
Yanase Masayoshi
Division Head, Finance Business Strategy Division, Finance Business Group, PayPay Corporation
After joining Vodafone Corp and working in Vodafone Group Marketing, he subsequently joined SoftBank Mobile Corp. and worked in the Product & Service Division, then moved to SoftBank U.S. Inc. as Product Strategy Manager, and then to SoftBank Corp. Business Development Division as the FinTech Business Planning Manager. Finally, he joined PayPay in August 2018. He is in charge of financial services (Pay Later, Earn Bonus, insurance mini app) and mini apps (Uber Eats, DiDi, PayPay Mall, PayPay Flea Market, Accelerator Program).
Table of contents
From “Payments” to “Total Money Management”
What made you decide to join PayPay?
My motive originally came from the experience that I had when I was posted to the U.S. Compared to other countries, I thought Japan was quite behind in FinTech. While at SoftBank, I was involved in their FinTech business planning from a finance position, so I decided to join PayPay thinking it would be much more exciting to launch PayPay’s business from the inside, not from the outside, and become something of a trailblazer. If I’m going to be engaged in FinTech, I want us to be the No. 1 FinTech company. That is why I’m here.
Tell us about the Finance Business Strategy Division
The Finance Business Strategy Division is responsible for the third layer of PayPay’s three-tier business model, which is strategic planning of our financial business, and both the planning and development of PayPay’s strategic businesses. We are also working to create new value for PayPay users and merchants through collaboration with PayPay branded financial companies (PayPay Bank, PayPay Securities, PayPay Insurance Service, and PayPay Asset Management). In PayPay’s app, the mini apps in the “Finance” section of the “Functions” list are which we are responsible for.
In 2022, we were able to offer a variety of financial mini apps: Insurance, Pay Later, PayPay Bank, and Invest. In 2023, our main focus is to strengthen these mini apps and further accelerate their integration with the PayPay user experience to enhance convenience. In 2023, digital salary payment began in Japan and in January of 2024, the new NISA program will start. Riding this trend, I would like to further improve our services so that PayPay can gain top-of-mind awareness among users regarding asset management, evolving from top-of-mind awareness for payments.
What does the fusion of mini apps and the PayPay app mean when it comes to user experience?
We hope to make it easier for our users to seamlessly navigate across the PayPay app and multiple mini apps, allowing them not only to purchase with PayPay, but also to save, increase, or borrow money, making money management more convenient. For example, we have been working on linking features for convenience, like allowing users to view their PayPay Bank account balance when topping up their PayPay Balance, and using PayPay Points to purchase securities in the “PayPay Invest” mini app, where users can buy and sell securities. We will focus on making asset management convenient by providing an integrated experience that combines features across the board, rather than working on features independently.
Continuous Pursuit of User-Centricity
What is important to you and what do you want to work on in the future?
Since our job often involves creating something that doesn’t exist in the world, I try not to follow convention, like “It’s a finance app, so it should be this way.” And I always ask myself and my team whether we are user-first or not. At times we might consider a service by first looking at precedents or systemic constraints, but it really shouldn’t be that way.
How can we make things more convenient for our users? In order to continue answering this question, we don’t end at just the release of a service but must continue improving the service. Plus, we should also learn about services in various industries, both domestic and overseas, and adopt the best parts from them to further grow. These would be the two things that I’d like for us to strengthen. I would also like to expand our collaboration not only with PayPay branded financial service providers, but also with other financial institutions.
” SPEED is our bet on the market ”
When creating services in the financial domain, legal compliance is unnegotiable. It is both difficult and fun to create products and businesses without losing speed in such an environment. In this context, our starting point is always putting users first. A service grows only if it is supported by its users. How quickly can we deliver services that are convenient for users? That is where I would like to continue to focus on.
What do you expect of your members?
Everything is up to each person! I want my team members to grow by doing and committing to what they want to do. What is it that we need to become the leading FinTech company, while putting our users first—I want the team to find challenges regarding this and take action. PayPay is an environment where you have the freedom to do so, so I would like them to take initiative, make decisions, and commit to it. I too have a sense of mission to make a difference in Japan’s financial services. That’s why I’m here.
Becoming the No.1 Service in Japan and the World
What is your vision for the future?
I hope to continue creating financial services that can be easily used by anyone. Financial institutions, such as banking and securities firms, are still viewed as being difficult to understand and hard to use their services, and I want to change that. I want to create services which are accessible and used hassle-free, not only by friends and colleagues but also by our elderly parents and children in elementary school.
What kind of people would you like to work with?
People who have a challenge-seeking mindset and want to solve them. Also folks who have overcome challenges with ingenuity. What’s important is carving out your own path with your brains and not to rely on conventional ways of doing things. Also, we have people from diverse backgrounds, so communication skills are necessary too.
What is uniquely attractive about working in PayPay?
The fact that we can create the top service that we can be proud of in Japan and the world. And in that journey, you will be able catch up and learn about FinTech from our team members from 50+ countries.
User acquisition is an important part of creating a financial service, and PayPay has now grown to 57 million users. You can think of how to provide a superior service to our 57 million users, break existing norms in the financial industry, and aim to create user-centric services. I think all of these are unique and rewarding experiences that you can have in PayPay.
Let’s create the best services in Japan and in the world to become the best FinTech company.
Current job openings
*Recruitment status and employee affiliations are correct at the time of the interview.
