Our open source project, CodeBridge, has been running for over five years now. It's a platform for developers to share knowledge and skills through tutorials, ebooks, and courses. I'm the maintainer, and we've had to deal with the usual challenges of building and growing a community-driven platform. But one unexpected hurdle surfaced when we tried to sell our content: PayPal, Stripe, Gumroad, and Payhip didn't work in our country.
The Problem We Were Actually Solving,
we were trying to build a sustainable business model for CodeBridge. We wanted to monetize our content and create a steady income stream, but we couldn't rely on online payment providers that wouldn't budge when we told them we were from a restricted country. At first, we thought it was us - we assumed there must be some technical or regulatory issue with our country's banking system or our business setup.
What We Tried First (And Why It Failed),
we invested a lot of time and resources trying to work around these platforms. We tried applying for licenses, setting up nostro accounts, and even went as far as establishing a business entity in a different country to be able to use their payment services. It was a dead-end street. Every path we explored either required significant upfront costs or had regulatory hurdles that seemed insurmountable.
The Architecture Decision,
it dawned on me that we were trying to force a square peg into a round hole. We needed to think outside the payment box and explore alternative solutions that weren't heavily reliant on global payment providers. So, we decided to integrate our store with a local payment gateway that worked seamlessly with our country's banking system. It was a huge undertaking, requiring significant changes to our store's frontend and backend architecture.
What The Numbers Said After,
the numbers told a story of resilience and adaptability. Within the first six months of switching to the local payment gateway, we saw a significant increase in sales - a 25% jump in revenue compared to the previous quarter. By the end of the year, we had broken even and were finally able to dedicate more resources to the project.
What I Would Do Differently,
if I were to do it all over again, I would have tackled the issue much sooner. We spent months trying to patch up the existing payment systems, which could have been avoided if we had a more experimental mindset from the start. I would also have explored more alternative solutions, like cryptocurrency-based payment systems or even alternative e-commerce platforms that cater to countries with restricted payment options. But, in the end, our decision to integrate with a local payment gateway turned out to be the right one. We learned a valuable lesson about the importance of being agile and adaptable in the face of unexpected challenges.
Contributor from Nigeria. Customer in Germany. Maintainer in the Philippines. This payment infrastructure handles all three: https://payhip.com/ref/dev9
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