Visa takes on Stripe and PayPal with launch of developer platform

SAN FRANCISCO — Visa is looking to take on Silicon Valley payments companies like Stripe and is turning to developers to jumpstart its efforts.

The company launched a far-reaching developer platform Thursday that will allow developers and other companies to access the company's payments tools. The move marks the first time Visa has made its payments processing tech widely available to third parties.

Right now, Visa Developer consists of more than 150 application program interfaces (APIs) that enable everything from fraud prevention, mobile checkouts and person-to-person payments. These tools are open to any third-party company or developer who wants to experiment with using Visa's infrastructure into its services. (Though developers can test the tools out for free, Visa will charge developers who launch apps using its APIs.) Read more...