PayPal unveils its mobile payments plans

The online payments giant has showed off a series of mobile payments and shopping solutions that provide NFC-like features without the need for an NFC phone.

PayPal
PAYPAL: Video reveals its vision of the future of mobile payments

Online payments pioneer PayPal has demonstrated a suite of mobile payments and mobile shopping solutions that deliver NFC-like features without the need for an NFC-enabled mobile phone. The new solutions are designed to provide a way for PayPal to migrate from being an online-only business into mainstream payments immediately, without needing to wait for the widespread availability of NFC phones.

The new solutions were unveiled at a closed meeting with 150 merchants and selected PayPal partners yesteday. According to AllThingsD, which was exclusively shown the payment products:

PayPal set up four user scenarios that are intended to disrupt the way we pay for things online and in stores today, using a variety of technologies.

What stood out was that none of the scenarios required merchants to adopt new infrastructure or buy new terminals. Likewise, customers won’t be required to upgrade their phones or have certain bank accounts.

Instead, PayPal users (of which there are 100 million worldwide) will be able to pay by entering a phone number and a pin code at the existing payment terminals, or by swiping a PayPal-issued card that’s not associated with a bank and does not have an account number printed on the front.

“We are doing something so big that it will change the face of payments,” said PayPal President Scott Thompson. “We can’t be so bold or arrogant to think that you’ll adopt to the standards we’ve created. If we said throw away your terminals and get a new one, or buy a new phone… no one has that level of influence and pull.”

“We will work with the new and the old,” he added.

PayPal has also produced a video showing its new mobile payments and shopping services in action:

Next: Visit the NFCW Expo to find new suppliers and solutions

2 comments on this article

  1. Paypal is getting a lot of heat for this Youtube video and article from the blogosphere. This video is a demonstration of why contactless/NFC is a better option for payments – I saw some of the most unrealistic m-commerce scenarios described and displayed in the AllThingsD article and the video above.

    Punching in numbers on touchscreen keypads is not realistic – in fact, I’m already doing m-commerce trials in downtown Atlanta right now and one of the biggest mistakes as a m-commerce merchant was a line was forming and I was having problem punching in the right numbers into the touchscreen device as customers were waiting. NFC or contactless would have made the transactions a lot faster and customers were dropping off.

    Paypal/Ebay made comments in the recent past discounting NFC as a mobile payment solution. I hope they realize they may want to take another serious look at NFC after presenting this piece of work.

  2. Paypal should not be so fast to discount NFC…while m-payments using NFC is still in its infancy, and does require equipment changes on the merchant-side, NFC has farther reaching capilities outside of payments, like ID’s, marketing, unlocking doors, paperless solutions, etc…i mean, VISA is pushing for contactless tech soon for its merchants in the future with its EMV technology…

    Give it a year or two, and NFC m-payments by Google, moneto, Blaze, and others will take off since they could then piggyback other NFC functions onto their application.

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