PayPal offers sneak peek of upcoming virtual wallet offering
PayPal has unveiled a glimpse at its upcoming mobile payments platform, which is promised to be more than "just shoving a credit card on a phone."
The solution is touted as "one-stop shop" as merchants and vendors can take advantage of a number of different offerings targeted towards their customers, ranging from location-based deals to the check-out process.
Given PayPal's strong role with its online payments platform through desktop browsers, it's no surprise that the eBay-owned company would turn its focus to the mobile spectrum as that market is starting to flourish. Maybe the only question would be is what is taking PayPal so long to get on board?
eBay has expressed a strong interest in getting involved with mobile payments since this past spring, which were made especially evident with the acquisitions of the geo-targeting startup WHERE and Zong, which developed a "frictionless" mobile payments system that routes charges directly to mobile carrier bills.
Although there are many more questions that have yet to be answered about this system regarding billing and other issues, PayPal's president Scott Thompson pointed towards a multi-platform approach on his company's official blog:
PayPal is re-imagining money and making it work better for merchants and consumers – whatever device you’re on, wherever you are in the world, and however you prefer to pay (whether that’s cash, credit, or installments).
Although Visa's initiative looks like it will be supported by the most mobile platforms and devices, this route could give PayPal an edge over Google Wallet, which will only be supported on Android...at least for the foreseeable future.
More details and specs will be revealed over the course of the next few months and likely during the X.commerce Innovate Conference this October.
For a closer look at PayPal's digital payments product, check out the promo video below:
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