PayPal adds support for NFC peer-to-peer payments

Written by Andrew Nusca, Former editor

Andrew Nusca Former editor

Andrew Nusca is a former writer-editor for ZDNet and contributor to CNET. He is also the former editor of SmartPlanet, ZDNet's sister site about innovation.

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Posted in Between the Lines on July 13, 2011 | Topic: Enterprise Software

Owe your buddy $5? PayPal hopes next time you pay him back you'll do so by "bumping" your smartphone with his.

The eBay-owned financial services company on Wednesday announced that it will begin supporting peer-to-peer payments to allow its customers to pay each other directly.

The scheme uses near-field communications, or NFC, technology to allow a device to transfer payment directly to another. Think of it like a digital check that's cashed seconds after you create it.

The company demonstrated its new NFC-enabled widget for Google Android smartphones this morning at the event by "bumping" two Samsung Nexus S handsets together.

The company says it will roll out the feature "late this summer."

PayPal said it's been evaluating NFC tech for a while. As I've written before, it's just another arrow in the company's growing quiver of ways to pay for things digitally, helping fulfill its goal of being a part of every digital transaction.