Itsme
03-23-2006, 05:40 AM
PayPal to launch new mobile pay system
ONLINE payment company PayPal has unveiled plans to roll-out a new service that will allow mobile phone users to make purchases and money transfers using a simple text message.
The move by PayPal, which is part of online auction giant eBay, marks a big step in bridging the worlds of e-commerce and the physical world of bricks and mortar stores by giving consumers a pay-as-you-go option via mobile phones.
The service, known as PayPal Mobile, will be launched in the next couple of weeks in the UK and North America.
Although some operators of mobile phone systems in the UK, mainland Europe, Australia and Japan are well ahead in investing in mobile payment services, PayPal's stringent verification system is seen as giving it a leg up on independent services as it appeals to a huge base of existing users.
One feature, called Text to Buy, is set to allow magazine readers, for example, to buy advertised items such as clothes, concert tickets or DVDs using their mobile phones, by sending product codes located in the ads.
A merchant receiving such a payment would then ship the product to the address stored in the PayPal user's account.
While designed to make online payments more convenient for the nearly 100 million existing PayPal users, the move to offer a mobile payment service holds out the prospect of reaching vast markets in the developing world where phones, rather than computers, are the main way to connect to the internet.
http://business.scotsman.com/technology.cfm?id=454992006
ONLINE payment company PayPal has unveiled plans to roll-out a new service that will allow mobile phone users to make purchases and money transfers using a simple text message.
The move by PayPal, which is part of online auction giant eBay, marks a big step in bridging the worlds of e-commerce and the physical world of bricks and mortar stores by giving consumers a pay-as-you-go option via mobile phones.
The service, known as PayPal Mobile, will be launched in the next couple of weeks in the UK and North America.
Although some operators of mobile phone systems in the UK, mainland Europe, Australia and Japan are well ahead in investing in mobile payment services, PayPal's stringent verification system is seen as giving it a leg up on independent services as it appeals to a huge base of existing users.
One feature, called Text to Buy, is set to allow magazine readers, for example, to buy advertised items such as clothes, concert tickets or DVDs using their mobile phones, by sending product codes located in the ads.
A merchant receiving such a payment would then ship the product to the address stored in the PayPal user's account.
While designed to make online payments more convenient for the nearly 100 million existing PayPal users, the move to offer a mobile payment service holds out the prospect of reaching vast markets in the developing world where phones, rather than computers, are the main way to connect to the internet.
http://business.scotsman.com/technology.cfm?id=454992006