PayPal to launch mobile pay
Published March 29th, 2007
PayPal to launch mobile pay
Paypal, eBay Inc.’s online payment company, announced Friday that it plans to launch a new service this year designed to make it easier to pay for items using cell phones and other mobile devices.
Web telephone calling service Skype also announced that it will soon begin allowing users to send money to other Skype users via Paypal.
Currently cell phone users can only buy items through Paypal using the standard version of the service on their web site.
Paypal spokeswoman Amanda Pires says that the process can often be cumbersome, such as requiring thumb-typing on tiny cell phone keyboards. She says that Paypal is currently working on a modified version of the service specifically designed for the scaled-down version of websites that appear on small cell phone displays.
One of the changes for the new service will include the increased use of single buttons instead of typing instructions, which works fine on a regular keyboard, but not on a small cell phone.
Pires said that the changes in the new service will simplify the amount of steps cell phone users will need to navigate to perform Paypal transactions. Pires also says it will make the process more secure. Paypal expects that computer users will continue buying expensive items such as televisions and other high priced merchandise through their come computers as opposed to the new mobile service.
“We think this is going to be more for merchants that offer impulse buys - movie tickets, pizzas, DVDs,” Pires said. “We initially believe that’s the target market for this service.”
Skype also has Paypal news, as Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom announced that the service will soon begin allowing users to send money to other Skype members via Paypal.
Zennstrom spoke at a technology conference in Silicon Valley when he announced that the company is working with Paypal. He declined to say exactly when the service would be made available to Skype users. Skype currently has tens of millions of users around the globe.
Skype and Paypal are both owned by eBay Inc., the leader in online auctions. Paypal is already the most popular method for Skype users to pay for long-distance Skype phone calls to other phones.
“You can send money over Skype,” Mr Zennstrom said of the upcoming service plan. “This is basically connecting the Skype community over PayPal. All the user needs is a PayPal account.”
According to a Skype spokesman, the service should be formally unveiled within a month.
Source : Associatedcontent.com
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