PayPal mobile payments platform
A friend of mine from Apple, whom I met when I was a Netscape guy based at Apple, is now a director at PayPal. Since I am still awaiting an iPhone that will utilize Verizon’s LTE network, I am still looking hard at mobile payments platforms for my photography business, and THIS article caught my eye. I’ll be very upfront and state that I am comparing Square‘s offerings with “all comers.”
“PayPal is rolling out a new payments platform for online and local merchants that it says will give customers an improved shopping and buying experience.
The platform will include location-based offers, and will be accessible from any device (not just mobile phones), PayPal President Scott Thompson announced in a blog post today.”
“PayPal is reimagining money and making it work better for merchants and consumers–whatever device you’re on, wherever you are in the world, and however you prefer to pay (whether that’s cash, credit, or installments),” Thompson wrote.
Although PayPal, the eBay-owned pioneer of peer-to-peer payments, has given Home Depot and Sports Authority a preview of the features today in Los Angeles, the public does not have many details, yet. A PayPal graphic in the CNET article suggests that the platform offers: geo-targeted mobile advertising, barcode scanning, real-time inventory availability, mobile and point-of-sale payments, and virtual wallet capabilities.
Thanks to All Things D and their conversations with PayPal executives, we also know that merchants will not have to upgrade their infrastructure to use the system, and neither will customers! According to All Things D, PayPal users will be able to make payments by entering a phone number and a PIN or merely swipe a PayPal-issued card that is not affiliated with a bank and will not have a number printed on the front!
TechCrunch’s interactions with Sam Shrauger, vice president of global product and experience for PayPal seem to indicate PayPal’s desire for an end-to-end solution, from search to payment.
Well, I am watching. Let’s see what PayPay produces and how much it costs.
-Bill at
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