５月に起きたPayPayのトラブル。キャッシュレス決済は4割に達している
今年５月に、PayPayで支払えなくなるトラブルが起きた。
PayPayは15日、何らかの障害が発生し、午後0時15分頃から利用出来ない場合があると発表した。
一部でエラーが発生しているのを確認したが、調査中としていて、「恐れ入りますが、復旧まで今しばらくお待ちください。ご迷惑をおかけしており、申し訳ございません」と謝罪している。
障害発生がちょうど昼食時だったこともあり、食事の後にPayPay決済をしようとしてもできず、現金など他の決済手段を持っていない人が「無銭飲食」状態になった人が続出した模様だ。
SNSには「PayPay使えへんの〜現金持ってなくて、今無銭飲食状態で取りに戻ってる」「PayPay不具合で詰んだ 現金持ち歩いてないのに〜 クレカのタッチ決済店員さんに教えて貰ってなんとか無銭飲食回避した」「無銭飲食タイム （PayPayエラーのため会社に金を取りに戻っている）」「携帯しか持たずに買い物に出た結果、PayPayが死んでおり無事無銭飲食(今財布を取りに駆けています」「PayPayシステム障害で無銭飲食を強いられました。ツケで払ったの初めてかもしれん。」といった書き込みが相次いだ。
このトラブルはその日の１５時半に復旧した。原因は「ユーザーのアプリと決済システムの間にある、中継サーバーでのデータチェックが高負荷となり、アプリの機能処理に影響が発生した」ためである、とPayPayはいう。
これ以上の報告はなく、プログラムのミスか、ハードウェアの故障か、データ量の想定外の増大か、PayPayトラブルの根本原因は公開されていない。
PayPayは過去にも短時間、使えないことがあった。
多分、今後もこのようなトラブルが起きることに備えて、現金かクレジットカードか、PayPay以外の決済できるものも一緒に持って買い物をするべきなのだろう。
ただ最近は、「cashless only」とする店もある。
現金での支払いができないことが法律違反になるかどうかについて、調べた人がいる。
今のところ現金で支払えない店は多くないが、今後増えていくだろうか？
次に、日本のキャッシュレス決済の比率推移を見てみた。今では約４割の人がキャッシュレス決済をしている。
２０２３年のコード決済の比率は、キャッシュレス決済の８．６％だ。５月１５日のpaypayトラブルでは、何割の人が支払いできずに困っただろうか。
この表は、経済産業省の「2023年のキャッシュレス決済比率を算出しました」というサイトから２０１９年と２０２３年のデータを抽出したものである（「算出しました」とは役所の文書と思えぬ、「タメ口」のような、なれなれしさだ）。
経済産業省は、「キャッシュレス決済比率を2025年までに4割程度、将来的には世界最高水準の80％を目指す」と言っている。勇ましい。
タイトル写真は、「「PayPay」で障害発生 ランチタイムに支払いできず......困惑の声続々」J-CASTニュースから引用
PayPay troubles in May. Cashless payments now make up 40% of all payments.
In May of this year, there was a problem where payments could not be made with PayPay.
PayPay announced on the 15th that some sort of malfunction had occurred, and that the service may be unavailable from around 12:15 pm.
The company confirmed that some errors were occurring, but said it was investigating the matter and apologized, saying, "We apologize for the inconvenience, but please wait for a while until service is restored. We apologize for the inconvenience."
As the malfunction occurred right at lunchtime, people were unable to make PayPay payments after their meals, and it appears that many people who did not have cash or other means of payment ended up eating and drinking without paying.
On social media, there were a series of posts such as, "I can't use PayPay! I don't have any cash on me, so I'm having to go back and get it now, having eaten and drunk without paying," "There's a PayPay glitch and I'm stuck, even though I don't have any cash with me. The staff member showed me how to pay with my credit card and I managed to avoid eating and drinking without paying," "Time to eat and drink without paying (I went back to the office to get money because of a PayPay error)," "I went out shopping with only my phone, but I can't use PayPay so now I don't have anything to pay (I'm running to get my wallet now)," and "A PayPay system glitch forced me to eat and drink without paying. This might be the first time I've had to pay on credit."
The problem was resolved by 3:30pm on the same day. PayPay said the cause was that "the data check process on the relay server between the user's app and the payment system became overloaded, affecting the app's functionality."
No further reports have been made, and the root cause of the PayPay problems has not been made public - could it be a programming error, hardware failure, or an unexpected increase in data volume?
PayPay has been unavailable for short periods of time in the past as well.
Perhaps, in preparation for future troubles like this, consumers should carry cash, credit cards, or other payment methods other than PayPay when shopping.
However, recently some stores have started to offer cashless payment only.
As in this article, someone has looked into whether not being able to pay with cash is against the law.
At the moment, there aren't many stores that don't accept cash payments, but will this increase in the future?
I looked at the trend in the ratio of cashless payments in Japan. Now, about 40% of people are using cashless payments. The ratio of code payments in 2023 was 8.6% of cashless payments. What percentage of people were unable to make payments during the PayPay trouble on May 15th?
This table shows data for 2019 and 2023 extracted from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's website titled "We have calculated the cashless payment ratio in 2023." (The phrase "we have calculated" sounds familiar, unlike an official government document.)
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry says, "We aim to increase the cashless payment ratio to around 40% by 2025, and to 80% in the future, the highest level in the world." How courageous.
The title photo is taken from J-CAST News, "PayPay Outage: Payments Unable to Be Made at Lunchtime...Confusion Continues"