PayPal Goes Mobile; Square Shows Future For Mobile Payments
PayPal goes with eBay like bacon goes with eggs (or ice cream goes with bread in Thailand), but now the company that brought confidence to internet payments has turned its attention to mobile users in Asia-Pacific.
Yesterday PayPal announced that its “new mobile application is now available to iPhone, BlackBerry and Android phone users in APAC”, with Thailand included. The app is downloadable from respective app stores while the company has also announced WAP support for other mobile devices.
“The PayPal mobile application allows users to quickly and securely send money for personal payments such as paying back money owed to a friend or splitting the cost of a dinner bill, etc. PayPal members can also check their account balances and view their past transaction history whilst on the go. To ensure mobile payments remain secure, each transaction is confirmed by a password.”
While the app will be of interest to smartphone users, there are too few iPhone, BlackBerry and Android owners in Thailand for it to make a real splash.
Plus, compared to the much heralded Square, PayPal just isn’t sexy.
The hype around Square is more than just the involvement of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.
The latter feature is, in my opinion, absolute genius. The physical act of swiping your card on your phone is sure to make users feel more secure with mobile payments, while the tech differentiates it from the rest of mobile payments gang, like PayPal.
Square is also more than just mobile payments, it acts like a wallet allowing a user to buy their coffee or small items from participating stores. And it is worth a users while as Square rewards repeat customers:
For example “that 10th cappuccino may be on the house, no paper coffee card required” says the website.
For now, however, PayPal mobile it must be as US-based Square is beginning with a limited beta and rolling out “to everyone” (apparently) in early 2010.
It is anyone’s guess as to when Square will be in Thailand but its presence is a clear warning to the likes of PayPal who must innovative for a share of the potentially lucrative mobile payments market.
