In this edition of our Professional Series, which delves into the lives of the extraordinary professionals working in the PayPay group, we sit down with Daisuke Ibaraki and Lijun Gao, members of the Merchant Business Strategy Division who drive business development for PayPay merchants. We asked them about their day-to-day operations, their recent merchant app-specific PayPay Stamp Card project, and what they find rewarding about their work.
Daisuke Ibaraki
Merchant Business Strategy Division Service Promotion Department Service Promotion 2
After joining Softbank Corp. as a new graduate in 2019, Ibaraki-san worked in enterprise systems development. Wanting to try his hand at a more familiar, impactful service, he joined PayPay in December 2021.
Lijun Gao (aka “Rei”)
Business Planning Team 2, Business Strategy Department, Merchant Business Strategy Division
Lijun Gao, or Rei, worked as a PM for the recipe video media service Delish Kitchen at every, Inc., which she joined as a new graduate. Her joining PayPay in September 2022 was spurred by the desire to get involved with a service more indispensable to users’ everyday lives.
We want to do work that impacts many users’ lives
What brought you to PayPay?
Ibaraki:
I was involved in developing network management tools for enterprise systems at my previous job, but wanted to do work on a consumer product that impacts on more users, leading me to join PayPay in December 2021. Given PayPay was and is a service I regularly use myself, I was quite fond of it, and didn’t even consider working elsewhere.
Rei:
As a PM at a start-up company, I was involved in a broad range of work, from formulating business plans to development. I joined PayPay in September 2022 wanting to do work more fundamentally involved in the day-to-day lives of users. What sealed the deal for me was the overwhelming number of PayPay users, and the fact I was attached to PayPay since it is a service I usually use myself.
What is your team’s mission, and what work do you do there?
Ibaraki:
I belong to the Service Promotion Department, where I have been in charge of our Stamp Card service ever since joining. Currently, I act primarily as a lead and coordinator between development teams and our own. My mission is to lead our projects to success through close liaising with the dev teams, including checking whether development is progressing according to timelines and figuring out causes of and ways to deal with any delays. I’ve also recently been the planning/dev lead for services outside of Stamp Card, such as merchant app-specific PayPay Coupons and Nearby.
Rei:
I joined PayPay as a service planning lead, and am currently an analyst in the Business Planning Team, analyzing the effectiveness of Stamp Card, SB Coupons, Return Visit Coupons, and other services, along with UI/UX and individual merchant analyses. The hallmark of an analyst’s work is full participation in services in order to solve merchants’ problems. Specifically, we have listening sessions on merchants’ numerical goals, then run effectiveness/cost estimates and individual post-measure analyses, which form the basis for our next proposal. I also analyze UI/UX data when new features are released to see whether they perform as expected, and if they don’t, uncover and give feedback on the reason why.
How to grow merchant footfall & sales – Our newly contrived homerun project
What project has left a lasting impression on you?
Ibaraki:
The merchant app-specific PayPay Stamp Card project. Until this project, our merchants used coupons and stamp cards displayed within the PayPay app as promotional tools, but we thought that by providing new deals available only in proprietary merchant apps, we could contribute more to merchant footfall and sales.
We considered a few campaigns, and settled on running one together with 7-Eleven, in which users could receive a stamp for payments above a certain threshold made with PayPay in the 7-Eleven app. After collecting a certain number of stamps, they are rewarded with PayPay Points.
Rei:
The aim of this campaign was to increase what are called “loyal” users, users who repeatedly visit and pay a certain amount at a merchant. Also, since this campaign was limited to the merchant’s app, we expected it to improve the number of the app’s total and new users.
Ibaraki-san took charge on dev logistics, myself on data analysis, and other members on supporting the sales team when we divvied responsibilities for this project. As each of us were able to work efficiently by playing to our strengths, we drove dev in line with standard processes, resulting in a relatively smooth path to release.
Ibaraki:
After the campaign began, 7-Eleven applied themselves to promotional announcements, such as putting up posters. Also, at the bottom of the app’s payment completion screen, there was a notification widget showing users the number of stamps they currently have and the rewards they could get if they collect a few more. This also led to greater user appeal, and in the end the number of users who filled their stamp cards exceeded 150% of our goal, also contributing to revenue.
When does work feel fulfilling to you?
Ibaraki:
I feel rewarded when I get good results on a project I lead, contributing to my team’s goals. There are over 65 million PayPay users (as of August 2024), meaning delays in development impact merchants and users, so there is pressure and difficulty to be honest. However, this also means the features I lead can create a big societal impact, which feels like a big achievement.
Rei:
I feel strongly fulfilled when I am able to contribute to merchants’ customer and sales growth through logically deriving solutions to their problems by drawing upon numbers and data. It’s also quite fun to analyze projects’ results and why they led to growth, what segments responded best, and what to improve for next time, which is all work that improves my own skills. PayPay is the perfect environment for those who want to grow together with their company.
How are your team’s vibes and your teammates?
Ibaraki:
I believe our team is super open to new ideas. Our manager is always willing to hear out our problems, and the team always does their best to solve problems together.
Rei:
Our team’s atmosphere is one where we feel at ease reaching out to each other when something happens. We each have our own strengths, and it’s reassuring knowing we can support one another in things like driving projects and building data.
We want to build services that satisfy merchant and consumer users
What philosophy drives your work?
Ibaraki:
“Speed is our bet on the market.” Our goal is to build features, services, and systems that maximize revenue at minimal cost, so I’m very conscious of producing results quickly and efficiently, such as by utilizing ChatGPT and internal AI tools.
Rei:
I always keep “Work for LIFE, or Work for Rice” in mind. I hope eagerly to take on challenge after challenge, without fear of risk.
What achievements and vision do you look forward to?
Rei:
I want to create a better customer experience together with merchants. Today, many merchants choose a single merchant service – such as Stamp Card our Coupon – to run their campaigns, but the effects you can expect differ depending on the service. For example, coupons get new users whereas stamp cards prevent churn amongst existing users, so even if you run them together their effects won’t cannibalize each other. There are actually a lot of cases in which running multiple services simultaneously is more effective.
Given that, I want to create an annual campaign plan that combines several services and propose it to merchants. PayPay could play the role of a sort of consultant, analyzing merchant needs and historical data to join hands with merchants in improving their customers’ experience.
Ibaraki:
A lot of coupons have already been run, so moving forward I want to increase the number of stamp cards as well. They have been available only for offline payments thus far, but we’ll be ramping up the presence of stamp card in the merchant services business through supporting online payments and other use cases in the future.
I will plan services that create a win-win-win: more value added for users of merchant apps, better new and continued use numbers for merchants, and improved revenue for PayPay. I want to create something that pleasantly surprises our users.
Any closing message for our readers?
Ibaraki:
The Merchant Business Strategy Division will continue to plan new services. Here, you can get involved with major projects regardless of your age or when you joined – it’s an environment where you can put forth new ideas with a lot of discretion. You’re sure to excel here if you have the communicative ability to marshal many stakeholders and can plan and act based on rational thinking.
Rei:
As an analyst, it is important to have general common sense and perspective. But those who succeed at PayPay have not only that, but their own ideas and the ability to think outside the box. I would love to work together with anyone wanting to tackle new challenges unencumbered by conventional methods. We’re looking forward to meeting you!
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*Job openings and employee affiliations are current as of the time of the interview.