NTT DoCoMo, which provides cashless payments using smartphones, announced that the payment fees paid by merchants will be free only for new merchants.
There is also a movement among other companies in the same industry to revise the policy that had been charged as a fee, and competition to further expand the number of affiliated stores is intensifying.
According to the announcement, NTT DoCoMo will make payment fees for smartphone payments free of charge until the end of September next year only for newly affiliated businesses.
The fee-free service for new merchants was originally limited to the end of September, but has been extended for one year.
Regarding smartphone payments, KDDI's au PAY had a policy of charging a fee from October, but this has been reviewed and it will be free until September next year, mainly for small and medium-sized member stores.
In addition, Rakuten Pay will also free the fees that were previously charged only to new member businesses with annual sales of 1 billion yen or less from October.
Meanwhile, PayPay, the largest company, just announced in August that it will charge fees for all businesses from October.
There is fierce competition for smartphone payments to further expand the number of affiliated stores with "zero fees".