Tuesday, 10 March 2015

PayPal buys Mobile Payment startup Paydiant

PayPal is an American international Digital wallet based e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders. PayPal is one of the world’s largest internet payment companies. The company operates as an acquirer, performing payment processing for online vendors, auction sites and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee.
The eBay payment unit plans to acquire Paydiant, a payments startup that licenses a technology platform used by big retail chains to create their own branded mobile wallet apps. PayPal will pay around $280 Million for the startup. Founded in 2010, Paydiant white label platform is used by Subway and other retailers and banks to add payment, loyalty, and digital coupon capabilities to their own apps. Its customer list also includes MCX, a consortium of big box retailers led by Walmart that says it will launch its mobile wallet app this year.

Competition in the mobile wallet sector is heating up with the launch of Apple Pay, Samsung offering Samsung Pay beginning this summer and Google teaming up with Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile to have its Google Wallet payment service built into Android phones sold by those carriers. EBay has been planning to spin off its PayPal payment business in the second half of this year.

In 2013, PayPal had acquired mobile payment service Venmo. PayPal has also announced that its Here card reader for mobile payments will soon support the wireless payment technology. The NFC enabled version of Here will pair with phones via Bluetooth, and supports traditional chip and PIN methods. The new NFC enabled PayPal Here Chip and PIN card reader, which will start rolling out in the UK and Australia this summer, and in the US later this year.

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