Daniel Benisatto
IS 251
PayPal Banks on Mobile Payments
This is an article taken from informationweek. The article is written by Esther Shein from October 27th, 2010.
PayPal is an electronic commerce business that allows payments and money transfers to be made entirely online solely using the Internet. The PayPal system serves as an alternative to the standard paper methods of checks and money orders. PayPal is also a very efficient way to go online shopping. One particular website in which PayPal is widely used is, eBay. PayPal is not restricted to just eBay though, it is widely used between a wide variety of online stores and companies. This variety ranges from Recently, PayPal has been making many changes in order to making its services more mainstream. The main change involves trying to add in and incorporate mobile uses for PayPal. The recent proposition was followed by the launch of a new service called “Mobile Express Checkout”. This provides customers with a secure “two-click” checkout process from any mobile device. Business owners that have already integrated a version of express checkout with PayPal will have no difficulties setting up with the new mobile technology. The well-known coffee retailer, Starbucks, will be among the first to use the mobile express checkout. The uses of this will include reloading Starbucks cards with the use of and iPhone or and iPod touch from a mobile application. There is also a newly incorporated location-based application that will help iPhone owners to find which business in their immediate area will accept the mobile payments. Currently, this feature is only available in the San Francisco Bay area. VeriFone, a large-scale device manufacturer for payment technology, is going to be the first to work with PayPal and begin developing technology to incorporate the mobile uses. PayPal has also partnered yp with a platform developer known as Appcelerator to help the current 8 million PayPal providers to create more customized mobile apps. PayPal itself is expecting up to $700 million worth of purchases from mobile devices.
This technology really brings out my curiosity. Mobile devices are constantly expanding and broadening their horizon. There comes a point where the completely unimaginable will be right at our fingertips. In my mind, I can never see what technology is going to come about next. Whether its cell phones, iPods, laptops or even cameras, I always try and think about what they can possibly do next to make their product more futuristic and more advanced. That is why this article really interested me. Though, I must say I do have my doubts about this particular technology. Something about the security of this technology just seems uneasy. I believe that if this is a proven safe method of purchasing goods, and dealing with money, this technology will take off. Like I said before, my curiosity is driven by such topics. I anticipate what will come next in the technology world. Soon I see this technology expanding to more smartphones, such as blackberrys and droids.
1 comment:
Many would say that PayPal is one of the most convenient methods of payment available to Internet shoppers and online users. It acts as a third party, separating buyer and seller, and thus maintaining privacy and security regarding payment method (1). This added security is what makes PayPal so widely used and accepted on almost all Internet sites.
However, if this security feature were to be compromised PayPal would lose its advantage over cash, check, money order, or credit card. Seems to be a looming question as to whether or not the security of a mobile device will be sufficient enough to match or exceed the levels that PayPal has already promised and delivered to its customers. Because this technology has not been widely tested for security, only convenience, consumers cannot be positive that their personal banking information will remain protected. Even if at the moment PayPal could assure all mobile users of its security, it wont take long for someone to figure out how to extract routing numbers, pins, or other information from the cell phone hardware itself. Without wireless devices that are secure as PayPal’s programming, the software and cutting edge concept will be virtually useless to all users.
If, however, PayPal can assure its users and maintain their confidence this technology has the potential to become as widespread as the original, online, PayPal has become. It’s convenience and novelty are not lost on its millions of users and those loyal followers would likely extend their trust to the mobile version. Security is what PayPal users expect from the service, so without it, PayPal would fail in its new launch of mobile payment software.
1. http://www.informationweek.com
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