ONE can say that Dragonpay’s success was built through partnerships. One can say it is because of its services. Or one can even say that it is because of the founder’s educational background. Though these remain true, Robertson Chiang, the founder of Dragonpay, says his business’s success and legitimacy were established through honesty and integrity. It may sound cliché; but in reality, these traits, when tainted, are hard to form once more. Trust between or among parties can last forever, but can also disappear in a snap.
One can say that Chiang was the prodigy of his batch in Ateneo de Manila University. Graduating at the top of his class with a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science, he pursued a career at Citibank as a systems analyst. This career path was cut short when he flew to the US in pursuit of an MBA degree, which he deservingly received at Babson Graduate School of Business. Going back to Manila, he opened up his own Internet Service Provider (ISP), which was later acquired by the biggest commercial ISP at that time. He joined forces with the bigger company as head of technology but he eventually left to become his own boss. The combination of his undergraduate degree, MBA degree and work experience only made him better in all angles of his intellect—giving birth to Dragonpay.
Dragonpay started as a side business of Chiang while he was still in his previous employment. Starting up, his vision was set to processing online payments through credit card and PayPal, then to online banking payments. But with the limited results from these channels, he realized that the credit and banking market would not cut his desired target. The truth is only an estimated 5 percent of the Philippine population have access to credit cards and only 20 percent have access to Internet banking.
Knowing the market, Chiang thought of the majority, who the e-commerce merchants have not tapped. This allowed Dragonpay to expand its services to over-the-counter payments, which, unsurprisingly, rocketed the venture from a sideline to a frontline, single-entity business. With this big shift in attention, he opted out from being an employee and became a full-time parent to Dragonpay.
Ever since Dragonpay acknowledged this truth about the Philippine market, business has been consistently performing—although as with any business venture, barriers must be overcome. The main barrier to this venture is gaining the trust of merchants and, of course, the consumers.
There is no exact science to this, leaving Dragonpay to resort to the classic act of persuasion. Being a start-up company, there is no other way but to make other merchants understand the idea of the business. Fortunately, at the right place and time, merchants understood that with the statistics laid out, there is a need to acquire Dragonpay in their e-commerce business. Along the way, Chiang was able to partner up with bigger companies that trusted his company from the very beginning. Showing that its service is full of potential and is beneficial to all parties, bigger names in different industries pursued the relationship and aided Dragonpay’s legitimacy as a business.
Today Dragonpay is the leader three services—online-payment solution, mass payout and recurring payments. These well-thought-of services are steadily growing to what Chiang envisioned from the very beginning. It truly was a trial-and-error process for Dragonpay; but the company made it to where it wanted to be, one way or another. Chiang exclaimed: “Find out what went wrong, fix it; do it all over again.” This advice of his seems obvious. One could say, “I knew that.” But not everyone can say, “I made it.”
In late 2014 GMO Payment Gateway, the biggest payment gateway in Japan, made a minority investment in Dragonpay. The partnership is expected to take the company to its next level of growth. More than anything else, the investment is also a testament to the soundness of the company’s business model and its prospect for further growth.
To know more about Dragonpay and its services, visit www.dragonpay.ph. This may be the missing payment solution to your business.