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Tag: paypal

  • PayPal Plans China Expansion

    PayPal Plans China Expansion

    Different estimates put China’s population in the neighborhood of 1.3 billion people, and soon enough, PayPal intends to start helping them do business worldwide.  PayPal will open an ecommerce hub in Chongqing with the local government’s blessing.

    This won’t be a simple matter of encouraging people to use the online payment system when making purchases and accept it when making sales.  Instead, it looks like the company means to interact with merchants in a number of ways, presumably earning their respect and loyalty in the process.

    According to Bloomberg, "PayPal agreed with Chongqing’s municipal government to set up the center to offer foreign exchange settlement, telesales, training, verification and other services . . ."

    A PayPal spokesperson also said, "This is the first time in the world for PayPal where we are doing such a wide-ranging, comprehensive partnership with a government.  In this case, we are looking to develop the local e-commerce industry in inland China to help Chinese merchants build up their capabilities to conduct cross-border trade."

    The government partnership should help ensure PayPal doesn’t encounter the same problems Google did.  Or the same problems eBay did, for that matter (eBay entered China in 2002 and quit the country in 2006).

    This situation will definitely bear watching.

  • PayPal Names New CFO

    PayPal Names New CFO

    The service that provides eBay with a good chunk of its revenue now has a new chief financial officer.  eBay announced today that Patrick Dupuis, formerly of contact center outsourcing specialist Sitel, is taking the CFO position at PayPal.

    If that seems like an odd career path, the fact that BJC Healthcare, a nonprofit healthcare organization, employed Dupuis prior to Sitel may send your eyebrows even higher.  Dupuis did serve as CFO at both those outfits, however.

    Also, it may relieve some people to know that Dupuis spent about 20 years at GE, and managed to graduate from Ecole de management de Lyon earlier in life.

    Patrick DupuisSo on to the official line.  PayPal president Scott Thompson indicated in a statement, "Patrick’s varied experience and proven ability to lead in a fast-paced international environment make him a fantastic addition to our executive team as PayPal enters its next stage of growth."

    Dupuis himself then said, "I couldn’t be more delighted to join PayPal during this very important time in its history – with tremendous opportunity ahead.  With PayPal’s clear mission, customer-centric culture and fantastic team, the time has never been better to be a part of this company and help define the future of money."

    Dupuis replaces Mary Hentges, who gave up her job as PayPal’s CFO to join CBS Interactive at the end of August.

  • Rumor Pairs Android Market, PayPal

    Rumor Pairs Android Market, PayPal

    Love it or hate it, a huge number of people are more familiar with PayPal than with any other online payment system.  And so the Android Market may soon seem more much accessible to them, as a new rumor indicates Google is about to reach a payment-related agreement with eBay.

    That would represent a significant about-turn on Google’s part.  For a long time, the search giant did all it could to downplay the importance of PayPal and promote Google Checkout, linking to its service from Google.com and offering shoppers significant discounts.

    Still, Scott Moritz reported earlier today, "Google has finally enlisted eBay’s PayPal service and is preparing to launch the payment system on its Android Market later this month.  Sources familiar with the situation say the deal is all but sealed, with an announcement coming as early as Oct. 26 during the PayPal developers’ conference in San Francisco."

    Google AndroidStay tuned, then, as that semi-deadline, combined with the approach of the 2010 holiday season, doesn’t leave a lot to chance.

    Unfortunately, one area where the details remain fuzzy is the subject of revenue splitting and that sort of thing.  Moritz’s sources indicated that "economics" were a point of some contention.

    Google would appear to be in the weaker bargaining position, though, if it’s finally making friends with eBay and PayPal after fighting them for all this time.

  • Now You Can Deposit Checks Into PayPal With Your iPhone

    Update: As far as availability, PayPal tells us, "Mobile Check Capture is currently available in the US only. The underlying technology that makes this possible is based on legislation passed by US Congress in 2004 as a result of the 9/11 attacks. The legislation, called "Check Clearing for the 21st Century," or "Check 21," gives US financial institutions the opportunity to clear checks using imaging technology rather than transporting the paper itself. We use technology provided by Bankserv to make this possible for our US customers. We are always on the lookout for ways to improve our customers" experience in all 190 markets in which we operate and decided to implement this great new service in the US. If the legislation changes in other countries, we will look to offer the same service in those countries."

    Original Article: The feature has been rumored to be coming for a while, but PayPal announced today that the latest version of its iPhone app lets you transfer checks into your PayPal balance for free, by simply taking a photo with your iPhone. 

    "The introduction of Mobile Check Capture marks the third significant features update for the iPhone 2.7 app, reinforcing PayPal’s commitment to providing consumers with an on-demand digital wallet," a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews.
     
    Should banks be worried? Comment here. 
     
    Some banks have already been utilizing similar technology, but it’s interesting to see it coming from PayPal, and could lead to a lot of people simply setting up PayPal accounts rather than checking accounts or savings accounts, simply for the convenience factor.  
     
    PayPal Adds Photo Check Deposit Feature to iPhone App
     
    "We all agree that the future of money is digital, so it’s hard to believe that there are people and businesses in the U.S. still using an analog technology that’s 400 years old – yes, I’m talking about checks," says senior director of PayPal Mobile, Laura Chambers. "Have you ever been handed a check and thought about when you’ll have a chance to get to the bank to deposit it? I’ve carried checks around for months before finally making the time to run to the bank or ATM to deposit them. That’s all about to change."
     
    PayPal uses BankServ, a money transfer and payments technology company for its mobile check capture feature. 

    Will you use this feature? Let us know. 

     

  • Court Rules Government Must Get Warrant to Access Cell Phone Location Data

    According to the EFF, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled that federal law allows judges the discretion to require that the government obtain a probable cause search warrant before accessing cell phone location data. 

    Reuters reports that the U.S. Justice Department is looking into Google’s acquisition of ITA software. Google made it pretty clear from the beginning that it expected heavy scrutiny. 

    PayPal expects to be a significant part of paying for video content streamed to televisions. In a post on the company blog today, PayPal VP of Global Product Strategy, Sam Shrauger, says, "We’re sure that PayPal will play an important role in removing the friction and letting consumers enjoy their TV and movies, where and when they want."

    Google has been displaying a unique logo today, which breaks apart and moves when you point your mouse to it. You can’t click on it for an explanation, but some have speculated its related to Google’s birthday. The company tweeted this today:

    Boisterous doodle today. Maybe it’s excited about the week ahead…Tue Sep 07 18:04:11 via Tap11A Googler
    google

    CNET points to an announcement from Microsoft "top game employee" Andre Vrignaud that he will be heading to Amazon. Don Reisinger says this feeds speculation that Amazon is planning a gaming push. 

    Mapquest has added some new functionality to its iPhone app, which lets the user rotate the phone and the map along with it. "In our continued quest to be your mapping service of choice on iPhone, your wish is our command.  In other words, with this update, when you start navigation the top of your map will no longer always be North," explains Mapquest’s Michael Iams. "So, if you’re headed SW, the top of the map will be SW (see image on left) allowing your position icon (waving man, dog cow, car, hand dog, etc) to now travel along the road in the same way you do."

    TechCrunch reports that Digg VP of Engineering John Quinn has been let go after three years due to Digg’s implementation of Database Cassandra, which has apparently contributed to the new version of the site going down repeatedly.  

  • PayPal Responds to iTunes Scam Issues

    The other day, reports surfaced of scammers running up iTunes users’ tabs through PayPal. Apple said there was no vulnerability in its system, and some blamed users for being gullible and falling for phishing scams.

    PayPal had said that it would reimburse people for unauthorized charges, but now the company has put up a blog post responding to the situation. PayPal Chief Information Security Officer Michael Barrett writes:

    There has been a lot of recent news coverage about unauthorized payments to iTunes, and some of our customers are concerned about the safety of their PayPal accounts. We’ve looked into this extensively, and want to assure you that: 1) the PayPal system itself has not been compromised and continues to be secure; and 2) if you have been affected by this issue, the criminals behind it have not taken over or logged into your PayPal account.

    Apple has also confirmed that iTunes’ servers have not been compromised. For those customers who have seen unauthorized iTunes charges to your PayPal or credit card account, Apple has recommended that you contact your financial institution about a chargeback and change your iTunes password right away. They have some useful tips on protecting your iTunes account security here.

    This should set users’ minds at ease. Hopefully they will take this as a lesson to be more careful about their online experiences.

    Some people did already go so far as to remove their PayPal accounts from iTunes:

    Just removed my PayPal account from iTunes http://lnkd.in/VDfBKyTue Aug 24 12:36:31 via LinkedInwebfitter
    webfitter

     

    Burnett also offers some tips for protection in the future.

  • PayPal Users Find Unauthorized iTunes Charges – Phishing Suspected

    Some iTunes users are finding that scammers are stealing their money through PayPal. Numerous people have been claiming as much on Twitter and Facebook.

    Erick Schonfeld at TechCrunch reports, "At least one group of scammers has found a way to charge thousands of dollars to iTunes accounts through PayPal. One targeted customer told us, ‘My account was charged over $4700. I called security at PayPal and was told a large number of iTunes store accounts were compromised.’ His email was filled with nearly 50 receipts from PayPal for $99.99 each."

    Some are going so far as to remove their PayPal accounts from iTunes altogether.

    Just removed my PayPal account from iTunes http://lnkd.in/VDfBKyTue Aug 24 12:36:31 via LinkedInwebfitter
    webfitter

     

    According to John Paczkowski at All Things Digital, it is gullible users who are to blame. "There’s no security hole in iTunes, and if you’ve been unfortunate enough to have hundreds of dollars in unauthorized purchases charged to your iTunes account, it’s likely because you’ve fallen victim to a bot attack or phishing scam–a variation on the one that’s been around for years now," he writes. "Sources close to Apple tell me iTunes has not been compromised and the company isn’t aware of any sudden increase in fraudulent transactions."

    He also has an official statement from Apple on the matter, which says, "ITunes is always working to prevent fraud and enhance password security for all of our users. But if your credit card or iTunes password is stolen and used on iTunes we recommend that you contact your financial institution and inquire about canceling the card and/or issuing a chargeback for any unauthorized transactions. We also recommend that you change your iTunes account password immediately."

    According to Paczkowski, PayPal has said that it will reimburse people for unauthorized charges.

  • PayPal Adds Donation Feature to iPhone, iPad App

    PayPal has launched an update to its mobile app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. It now has a donation feature that lets users donate to over 23,000 charities in the U.S., UK. and Canada.

    "We hope the new application will simplify the donation process and help charities reach more donors," says PayPal Mobile Senior Director Laura Chambers. "We know most people want to contribute to causes near and dear to their heart, but many times the ins and outs associated with donating can get in the way of peoples’ good nature. I think Bill Gates said it best recently: The barrier to giving is not too little caring, it’s that giving is too complex. Today, we are a step closer to solving that barrier."

    "As adoption of smartphones increases, donating via the mobile is also becoming more popular," she adds. "According to a study by  Pew Research Center in July 2010, 11 percent of Americans have made a charitable donation via text. By adding donations to PayPal’s iPhone app, we’re hoping to increase that percentage even more. With great new features like searching for nearby charities and the ability to post your donation to Facebook, we think it’s going to be a great boon to both local and international charities."

    PayPal Donations on iPad, iPhone

    Sharing donations on Facebook could certainly help for spreading the word, creating a viral effect for donations. That’s great for charities.

    Among the charities the app supports are: the American Cancer Society, Autism Speaks, Save the Children, UNICEF, BBC Children in Need, Cancer Research UK, and Canadian Red Cross.

    PayPal says it submitted the app to the Apple App Store today, and expects to see it become available in the next few days.

  • PayPal to Offer Micropayment Service

    PayPal to Offer Micropayment Service

    PayPal may release a micropayment service before th year ends if reports are accurate. President Scott Thompson is said to have indicated as much.

    The move would make too much sense not to come sooner or later, and sooner would no doubt be in PayPal’s best interest. Not only are social games among the biggest trends of the web, but news organizations are still experimenting with ways to drive revenues, and micropayments are not out of the question for some.

    Given PayPal’s track record as the go-to online payment service, getting a micropayment service up and running seems like it should be a key initiative.

    PayPal It has already been an interesting year for PayPal, with a great deal of emphasis on mobile endeavors. Recently, the company extended the bump technology of its iPhone app to Android, and its PayPal X Platform has opened up a lot of opportunities for third-party developers. In June, it launched a Guest Payments feature, allowing credit card acceptance within apps.

    Micropayments, particularly through mobile channels are bound to become much more in demand with the rise of virtual gifts, online news experiments, tablets, and mobile use in general.

  • PayPal Launches New Android App with Bump Technology

    PayPal has announced the launch of version 2 of its Android app. This feature "bump" technology, which lets two users bump their phones together to send money (much like the existing iPhone app).

    "Split the check is another great feature, which lets you automatically calculate the total cost of a bill and then collect money directly from friends when out to dinner," says PayPal Mobile Senior Director Laura Chambers. "We hope these new features make it even easier to get paid back on the spot the next time you’re stuck picking up the tab."

    "According to a recent Nielsen Company report, by the end of next year, more people will own smartphones than PayPal Android App with Bumpany other phone in the U.S., and that’s sure to drive people to use their phones to pay," adds Chambers. "We’ve definitely seen this growth ourselves. While we’ve had PayPal mobile applications since 2005, in the last few years we’ve seen usage soar. Over the last six months alone, PayPal generated nearly twice the mobile payment volume it did in all of 2009, and we expect to close out the year with over a half a billion dollars of mobile payment volume."

    Android use itself is growing dramatically. A report from NPD Group found that one in three smartphones shipped in the U.S. are running Android.

    The new PayPal app is free, and can be found in the Android Market.

  • PayPal X Platform Toolkit Available for Google App Engine

    PayPal is offering a new open source toolkit for Google App Engine that lets you integrate Java apps running on App Engine with the new PayPal Adaptive Payments API. The Adaptive Payments API lets developers embed payments into their apps, services, and platforms.

    PayPal X - Toolkit for Google App EnginePayPal’s Praveen Alavilli says, "The Adaptive Payments APIs offer several new payments functionality like Split Payments and Preapprovals, that enable developers to implement a variety of monetization models – freemium, subscriptions, pay-per-use, value-added-services, micro-transactions, e-commerce, etc. in their applications built and running on the App Engine. Whether you are building an application for Businesses to process back-end disbursements or payouts to affiliates, or building a social or gaming app for Facebook / Twitter / Open Social, or building a Desktop gadget for premium content, or building a Geolocation app that only helps users find places and people around where they are but even help in transacting them, or building a Web2.0 AJAX app that mashes up content and services, or several more use cases enabled by App Engine, now you can use the PayPal X toolkit to enable payments in them as it fits the needs."

    More information on using the toolkit can be found here. There will be a Python version of the toolkit coming out soon, PayPal says.

    On a related note, PayPal is reportedly launching Mobile Express Checkout, a mobile version of its existing Express Checkout service.
     

  • PayPal Lets Apps Accept Credit Cards

    PayPal Lets Apps Accept Credit Cards

    PayPal has announced that it now accepts credit cards in apps. The company’s payments platform, PayPal X, now has a Guest Payments feature.

    "With this new feature, developers will now be able to accept credit card payments without requiring customers to open up a PayPal account," a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews.

    PayPalGuest Payments is a product of PayPal’s Adaptive Payments API, and has been a heavily requested feature for users. PayPal says Guest Payments eliminates the complications merchants, developers, and startups face in accepting credit cards.

    "We’re aware that no matter how innovative the ideas are, our developers look to us to provide the features to make it all possible," says Naveed Anwar, senior director of PayPal’s Developer Network. " We’re thrilled to provide this new functionality to meet this need and look forward to seeing the ground-breaking apps our developer community will create with this."

    PayPal is starting to get some competition from the credit card companies themselves. Last month, MasterCard announced a new developer initiative, which would place MasterCard payment technology in mobile and online apps. This week, Visa launched new payments service called PayClick in Australia.

  • Visa Launches its PayPal Competitor in Australia

    Last month we saw MasterCard make a move to start gunning for PayPal. Now it’s Visa. Visa has launched a new payments service called PayClick in Australia, but reportedly has "a view" for global markets.

    Visa says it’s ideal for downloadable content such as music, games, and movies. The company cites an analysis from Investment Trends indicating that there will be $646 million of online micropayments (online transactions under $20) in Australia during 2010 across the online gaming, music and micro retail sectors.

    PayClick from Visa - Will it compete with PayPal?"Visa has been making ecommerce payments as safe, reliable and convenient as possible since the advent of online shopping," says Chris Clark, General Manager Visa, Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific. "With global ecommerce continuing to grow at more than 10 percent annually, payclick continues this process. We know consumers seek convenience, security and value when shopping online – and payclick offers a secure way to pay."

    Users can add money to their PayClick account using their existing Visa, MasterCard debit or prepaid cards, or bank accounts through BPay. Then they can shop online with any retailer that offers a PayClick button.

    Big Pond Games, Big Pond Music, Flexischools, Habbo, iTunes and Kids Help Line were announced as the first sellers to accept PayClick. Videos about the service can be viewed here.

    While it’s only available in Australia right now, PayClick will no doubt make its way around the world in time.

  • PayPal Partners with Major Nonprofit Donation Solution Provider

    PayPal announced an agreement with Convio, a provider of solutions for nonprofits to raise funds, to let Convio implement PayPal to collect donations online. PayPal says this will help boost donations for Convio’s 1,300 nonprofits and give them access to the 84 million active PayPal users across the globe.

    "By adding PayPal as an integrated donation option to their sites, the nonprofits we serve will have access to PayPal’s more than 84 million active accounts. We consistently heard from our nonprofits that they wanted to provide their donors with the convenience of PayPal," says Convio Chief Marketing Officer Sara Spivey.

    Food for the Poor - Convio powers donations using PayPal

    "We’re thrilled to work with Convio to help nonprofits boost their fundraising efforts," says Judy Chang, PayPal senior manager, nonprofits. "With PayPal, nonprofits can grow their supporter base globally. Nonprofits can accept donations in 24 currencies and tap into PayPal’s member base in 190 countries and markets."

    In 2009, nonprofits raised over $1 billion utilizing PayPa, according to the company. PayPal gives nonprofits reporting that lets them manage donor info on the backend and a discounted rate (a 25% reduction).

  • Microsoft Launches Internet Fraud Alert System

    Microsoft, eBay and PayPal have launched an Internet Fraud Alert system aimed at helping security researchers report information they find online about stolen data.

    Microsoft says its Internet Fraud Alert service will allow security researchers to more securely share information with service providers, retailers, financial institutions and government entities about incidents where compromised account credentials have been discovered.

     

     

    Microsoft has donated the tool to the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance which will manage the program while Accuity, the American Bankers Association, Anti-Phishing Working Group, and the Federal Trade Commission will all participate.

    "Those who traffic in stolen identities often use online tools to collect, share and profit from compromised account credentials, but those of us working to combat identity theft have a few tools of our own," said Nancy Anderson, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft.

    "By combining new technology and critical partnerships, Internet Fraud Alert helps alert institutions to stolen credentials so they can take action to combat fraud. The Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit is proud to be working with the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance and everyone joining with us today to announce this valuable new tool in the fight against cybercrime."
     

     

  • Second PayPal X Developer Challenge Announced

    Look for many, many interesting new PayPal apps and services to surface over the next four or so months.  The second PayPal X Developer Challenge was announced today, and the competition is sure to draw lots of participants with $150,000 in prizes on the line.

    A PayPal representative explained in an email to WebProNews, "[T]he grand prize is worth $100,000 – $50,000 will be deposited directly into the winner’s PayPal account and the other $50,000 will go towards waived transaction fees."

    Then, to account for the difference between $100,000 and $150,000, there are the "X Awards," which "will allow developers to win awards for outstanding apps in various categories. . ."  The categories will cover matters including which apps best take advantage of Yahoo’s and eBay’s platforms.

    As for when all the competing and prize-winning is scheduled to occur, developers can register now and should be sure to register before the end of August 4th (a chance to win one of ten iPads is at stake).  Then the winners will be announced at PayPal X Innovate 2010 on October 26th and 27th.

    Google’s most recent attempt to generate interest in Google Checkout, which involved giving users $5, $10, and $20 discounts, seems a little half-hearted by comparison.

  • PayPal Announces First Collaboration with Government Agency on Mobile Commerce

    Update:  When asked about PayPal pursuing other collaborations wtih government agencies, Anuj Nayar, the director of globalcommunications at PayPal, tells us:

    Our mobile strategy in Asia Pacific covers 5 areas:

    1. Provide consumers with a simple, fast, secure checkout experience on the mobile phone.

    2. Provide merchants with an easy integration of their online shopping site with the mobile phone.

    3. Partner with leading mobile ecosystem players to provide mass distribution for payment functionality in mobile services and apps.

    4. Enable the developer community to monetize their mobile services and apps through our Mobile Payment Libraries.

    5. Focus on key cross-boder/domestic m-commerce markets in Asia Pac including Japan, China, Australia, while experimenting in other markets where m-commerce is just taking off.

    As opportunities like the one with the IDA elsewhere in the world present themselves, we’d be happy to pursue them but we have nothing to announce right now.

    Original Article: PayPal announced today that it is collaborating with Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority, a national government agency, to have PayPal’s mobile payment platform power the m-commerce infrastructure of Singapore’s Digital Concierge program. This is of particular significance because it marks the first collaboration between Paypal and a government agency on mobile payments.

    "In a nation with 138% mobile penetration and where 8 out of every 10 phones being bought are smartphones, Singapore possesses great potential for widespread adoption of mobile commerce as an increasing number of retailers want to use the mobile channel to extend their reach and consumers want easy-to-use, secure payment methods on their mobile phones," says VP of PayPal Asia Pacific, Farhad Irani.

    2010 has been a very big year for PayPal’s surge into mobile. At SXSW back in March, WebProNews spoke with Francesco Rovetta, director of business development for PayPal Mobile about this:

    "M-commerce is really taking off in this mobile-mad region as consumers increasingly shop on their mobile phones," says Irani. "We’re seeing many innovative ways, like our collaboration with Maxis in Malaysia, for businesses to address this regional market worth US$1.6 billion this year and expected to grow to US$12 billion in 2013 (according to ABI Research)."

    It will be interesting to see how many more government agencies go PayPal, and in different regions.

  • PayPal Announces Some Pricing Changes

    PayPal Announces Some Pricing Changes

    Today, PayPal announced that it is making some changes to its user agreements and pricing. The changes are specifically related to refunds, chargebacks, and Amex payments.

    PayPal senior director of SMB Merchant Services Eddie Davis outlines the following changes:

    1. Refund Prices – Starting August 10, PayPal will retain the transaction fee (typically $.30) when a seller issues a refund (U.S. and Canada merchants).

    2. Chargeback Prices – Starting August 24, we’ll be increasing chargeback costs from $10 to the typical industry rate of $20 (U.S. merchants only, eBay merchants enrolled in the PayPal Preferred program are exempt).

    3. Eddie Davis of PayPalAmerican Express Card Acceptance – On July 13, PayPal and American Express will enter into a new card processing arrangement that requires merchants to establish a direct contractual relationship with American Express. You’ll need to accept a new agreement with American Express if you want to continue to accept American Express cards directly through Website Payments Pro and Virtual Terminal. PayPal will continue to service American Express transactions. As part of this new agreement, the fees we charge for American Express payments will change to be on par with their typical industry rates. You’ll also need to make sure that you comply with other terms in the agreement with American Express. As part of this new agreement, American Express pricing will change to be on par with their typical industry rates. You’ll also need to make sure that you comply with other terms in the agreement with American Express. This only applies to taking American Express credit cards directly. There’s no change if a consumer chooses to pay with PayPal, no matter how the account is funded.

    Davis notes that standard transaction fees for PayPal payments and direct credit card payments for Visa, MasterCard, and Discover will remain unchanged.

    More information on the changes can be found in "policy updates" when you log into your merchant account on PayPal.com.

  • Is MasterCard Declaring War on PayPal?

    Is MasterCard Declaring War on PayPal?

    This week MasterCard announced a new developer initiative, which will place MasterCard payment technology in mobile and online apps.

    "We are excited about tapping into the ingenuity of software developers around the globe to help create the next generation of game-changing payment applications," said Josh Peirez, Chief Innovation Officer, MasterCard Worldwide. "We feel this will unleash innovation within our industry especially in the burgeoning areas of e-commerce and mobile payments."

    PayPal was quick to remind people that that it specializes in this concept, saying Mastercard is "following in its footsteps."

    "We’ve been working with developers for more than a year to deliver PayPal X, the first open global payments platform with functionalities specifically based on developer needs," says Damon Hougland, senior director of PayPal X, the company’s open platform.  "Since we opened up PayPal X, thousands of developers have signed up, hundreds of apps have been built, and millions of dollars have transacted over our platform."

    PayPal X

    "We’re already helping developers make money and monetize their visions," he continues. "Split Payments, for example, allows developers to automatically add their service fee to any PayPal transaction. Developers using PayPal X are already changing the way consumers think about money – for example, we worked with the folks at Bump, a technology to swap information between smartphones by tapping them together, to incorporate this functionality into the PayPal Mobile for iPhone app. Now people can just ‘bump’ iPhones to transfer money. In the first three weeks alone, the application was downloaded more than one million times."

    PayPal says next month it will offer developers the ability to collect credit card payments from within their PayPal X-based applications. This means they wouldn’t have to deal with complications commonly associated with credit card acceptance. The company says to expect "a lot more innovation" in the run up to its developer conference in October.

    MasterCard says its Open APIs will be available around the world later this year. Depending on whether or not development on top of the APIs gets heavily under way before October, PayPal’s conference should be all the more interesting, adding to an already increasingly fascinating year of application payment options.

    Last week at Google I/O, PayPal announced the availability of its Mobile Payments Library for Android, as well as the launch of its PayPal X Toolkit for Google App Engine. These should both increase reach significantly.

  • What Was Announced At Google I/O 2010?

    There has been a wide range of interesting announcements coming out of Google I/O this week where WebProNews is covering the event.

    What do you think has been the most interesting announcement from Google I/O so far? Let us know in the comments!

    Update Google I/O

    Google has launched Google TV, which is based on the Android platform and runs on the Google Chrome web browser.

    Google TV expands video choice from the hundreds of channels available via a pay TV provider to a storehouse of video content available through the web and streaming video. Users will be able to watch streaming video from Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, and YouTube.

    Google TV features integrated search to allow users to find relevant content across over-the-air and pay-TV channel listings, DVR, and the Internet, as well as a picture-in-picture layout to access multiple windows simultaneously.

    Google has introduced Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo short for frozen yogurt). New Android 2.2 features include portable hotspot functionality, support for Adobe Flash within the Android Browser and a preview of an upcoming web-based version of Android Market.

    "The growth of the Android ecosystem continues to exceed our expectations," said Andy Rubin, VP, Engineering.

    "Every day, 100,000 new people start using Android-based handsets. There are now more than 180,000 active Android developers who have contributed over 50,000 apps to the Android Market. Froyo is another step toward making Android an even better platform for developers, enterprises and consumers."
     

    Oringinal Article

    Google Wave

    Google announced it is making Google Wave open to everyone and dropping the requirement of an invitation. Google said Wave is now much faster to use and easier to navigate to unread parts of a wave. The company has also added permission management options and extension gallery to Wave.

    Google App Engine for Business

    Google launched its App Engine for Business, which gives organizations the ability to manage all apps in one place using the same infrastructure that powers Google applications. Google has also been working with VMware on cloud portability to make it easier for Java developers to use tools to develop and deploy rich web apps.

    PayPal introduces Mobile Payments Library for Android

    The Mobile Payments Library for Android allows people to make in-app purchases directly from their PayPal accounts, without having to leave the app. PayPal said this allows to developers to not have to store people’s personal financial information, definitely a good feature for all parties involved.

    Chrome Web Store

    The Google Chrome Web Store will be available later this year and the company described it as an open marketplace for web apps. Google says the Chrome Web Store will make it easier for developers to reach a larger audience, which obviously means a chance to generate more revenue.

    Chrome-Web-Store

    WebM Project

    The announcement of the

    WebM Project , a new open codec for web video with support from Mozilla and Opera, was well received.

    Key features of WebM include:

    VP8, a high quality codec with a BSD-style, royalty-free license
    Vorbis, an open source and broadly implemented audio codec
    A container format based on a subset of the Matroska media container

    Preview of Google Storage for Developers

    Storage for Developers

    is a RESTful cloud service built on Google’s storage and networking infrastructure. The RESTful API allows developers to connect their applications to reliable storage replicated across a number of U.S. data centers. Google Storage for Developers is currently open to a limited number of developers.

    Are you excited about the news from Google I/O? Let us know in the comments!


  • PayPal Has Some Announcements from Google I/O

    I’m out here at Google I/O where PayPal made a couple of announcements: the availability of its Mobile Payments Library for Android and the launch of its PayPal X Toolkit for Google App Engine.

    Update: Here is an interview we did with PayPal’s Rasesh Shah on the announcements:

    The library makes it possible for consumers to make in-app purchases directly with their PayPal accounts, without leaving that app. "And in doing so," a rep for the company tells me, "there is no longer a need for developers to store their customers’ personal financial information."

    The toolkit for App ENgine will power new payments in a number of different marketplaces, I’m told. "This toolkit will help developers easily and securely incorporate payments, including parallel and chained, into their applications and services built on the GAE plaform," the rep says.

    More info about these announcements can be found on PayPal’s blog.