PayPay Leader Interview is a series of interviews with PayPay group top executives that show a glimpse into their personalities and perspectives. In this installment, we sat with Hiroyuki Shida, Director, Senior Managing Corporate Officer, CTO.
Hiroyuki Shida
Director, Senior Managing Corporate Officer, CTO
I joined a systems integrator as a new graduate, then joined Yahoo Japan Corporation (now LY Corporation) in 2007. I was involved in developing payment systems like Yahoo! JAPAN Wallet and PayPay, then got seconded to PayPay Card and was appointed CTO in 2020.
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Laying the Foundation for Rapid Growth
Please tell us about your career
I’ve been involved in payment systems since joining a systems integrator fresh out of university. After moving to Yahoo Japan Corporation in 2007, I worked on building a billing and collection system, got involved in launching PayPay, then served as the head of the development division in the payment financial service area. After all that, I received an offer to help out PayPay Card in 2020.
In late 2019, during a PayPay promotion, the PayPay Card system went down due to a surge in traffic. This led to my role in steering the initiatives of reorganizing the company and overhauling its systems.
What has been the most challenging project so far?
We rewrote our core system running on a mainframe and COBOL to Java and migrated it to AWS. It was a major project. The Java rewrite idea actually began about six and a half years ago, and we finally made it a reality through the AWS migration project that started in October 2020.
In addition to redoing the systems, it was urgent that we prepared the foundation for future growth, including the framework for development. At the time, we relied heavily on vendors for development, and we were not creating products with our own hands or taking ownership. And for most engineers, this was their first time being involved in such a large project. Estimating development time and managing progress smoothly was difficult, often causing delays.
That’s why we decided to shift development in-house, enabling engineers to take responsibility of developing our own products. We started with repeating small tasks, and by learning to understand everything quantitatively, we’ve been able to continually grow, making visible progress day by day. This approach has helped us gain control over the progress of our projects. We finally started full-scale operation of the core system in April 2023, and are currently making further improvements and speeding up the development process.
Now that you have migrated the core system and are developing in-house, what are your new challenges and initiatives?
In an ever-changing business environment, it’s crucial to actively incorporate new technologies into the PayPay Card system to make our business grow. Now that we can create on our own, as a company, we want to push for the growth of our engineers, enhancing our training and educational environment.
Constantly Daring, Focusing on Users
What do you value in your work?
One is to always put users first. Our business cannot exist without users. As someone overseeing the engineering organization, I constantly remind our staff that no matter how advanced the technology is or how quickly something is built, it’s meaningless if it’s not user-friendly. We discuss thoroughly the users’ pain points, and work towards solving them in the best way possible. Outside the company, each employee is also a user. I’d say our deep knowledge about our services and users enables us to create excellent services.
Another thing is, as the world changes rapidly, it is essential to always learn and grow. And on the ground, it’s about starting small. We start with a 2-3 day trial and then observe the situation carefully see how to proceed. Small mistakes can be fixed, so it’s crucial to try out many things in a short period. Naturally, we also should not be complacent with the current state but constantly find issues and points for improvement to continue evolving.
What is the charm of PayPay Card and what makes working here worthwhile?
I would say the fun of working in PayPay Card is the opportunity to aim for the No.1 service. To that end, I want to create many user-first services and take on challenges without being confined to the conventions of the financial industry. I would love for people who enjoy this kind of work to join us.
As CTO, how do you want your members to grow?
A person doesn’t need to be adept at everything, but an engineer needs to establish at least one area of expertise.
What will become increasingly important in the future is the ability to find new issues and areas for improvement, and then develop without being satisfied with the status quo. In my late twenties, I worked under a boss who consistently asked “Why?” and “How?” That taught me a lot. My boss was always several steps ahead and though on a different plane. To create something better than today, engineers must constantly think about the “why” and “what” of whatever they work on, leveraging their skills to contribute to users and society while continuing to grow themselves.
Aiming for No. 1, Trailblazing with Overwhelming Speed!
Tell us what you hope to accomplish in the future
PayPay Card aims to be the number one card company in Japan. To do this, we aim to fill any gaps that we have compared to other companies, and also create unique features and values that only we can offer. That way, we can quickly give users a reason to keep using our card.
Now our mission is to realize plans more quickly and deliver them to users. Of course, not everything will turn out well. So we aim to make our services more user-friendly and attractive by rolling out products in a short period and iterating improvements based on user feedback..
The financial industry is often perceived as being slow to start something new due to various rules and constraints, but we want to break away from that image. While firmly adhering to rules that need to observed, we aim to be an engineering organization that can continuously take on new initiatives in short cycles.
What sort of person would you like to work with?
In a business environment that is constantly changing, we are required to actively adopt new technologies and drive change ourselves. I believe that not only big challenges but also diligently building on small challenges can lead to significant results. I think now is a good time for folks who love taking on challenges, and I love to work with such people.
Lastly, a message for our readers please!
Currently, PayPay Card’s engineering team mainly operates from bases in Fukuoka and Tokyo, but in the future, we aim to create an organization where one can work from anywhere in Japan and ultimately around the world. We aim to be a truly diverse company that can accommodate everyone’s future lifestyles.
If you want to enjoy the process of becoming the No. 1 fintech company and contribute to users and the world by fully employing your skills, please feel free to talk to us!
Current job openings
*Job openings and employee affiliations are current as of the time of the interview.