Developers to put PayPal payments into applications

PayPal X pushes micro-payments

By Tony Bradley | PC World
Published: 11:41 GMT, 05 November 09

PayPal used its inaugural PayPal X Innovate 2009 conference in San Francisco to officially announce the PayPal X program to release APIs allowing developers to integrate PayPal seamlessly into third party applications. The expanded functionality will help PayPal to compete against similar online payment services from Amazon and Google.

The new PayPal APIs allow developers to engage customers directly within their own applications rather than forcing them to port users off to the actual PayPal site. Users who don't even use PayPal can actually sign up for PayPal within the third party application and begin making PayPal payments seamlessly from within the interface.

PayPal wants to make it easier for developers to leverage its payment system, ostensibly making PayPal a sort of de facto currency for the web. Part of the goal of opening PayPal to developers is also to expand the types of transactions PayPal is used for to include things like paying rent, or employee payroll.

PayPal buys Israeli security company | PayPal goes mobile | PayPal asks ISPs to block unsigned email | PayPal prepares SMS payments

PayPal also has its eye on smart phones and wants to incorporate PayPal payments into mobile applications. Google Checkout is already working on mobile devices, and Nokia is working on its own mobile payment system, Nokia Money.

PayPal is an established name in online transactions. It built a reputation for providing a safe and secure means of making payments for things like EBay purchases. It worked so well and got so popular that EBay eventually bought PayPal in 2002.

PayPal doesn't provide the service as a charity though. There are fees involved and some users have taken issue with those fees (including recently adding fees without notice for services that were previously free).

Rather than adopt PayPal (and the fees that come with it) for online payment, Amazon and Google have developed homegrown online payment systems. Google and Amazon are both online gorillas, and Amazon is a huge online retail site, so the competition is a threat to PayPal.

What are your views on this subject? Use the form below to post a comment on this article up to 500 characters.

Characters remaining: 500

Related Applications news

Microsoft Office 2010 beta available for download

Developers can get hands on software preview

19 November 2009

Microsoft reveals Silverlight update plans

Version 4 to beef up out of browser application support

Microsoft beta to shake up directory services

Developers to bake access control into applications

Salesforce launches own social networking app

Chatter could be 'Facebook for the enterprise'.

Related Applications reviews

Microsoft Office 2010 beta

Akvis ArtSuite 5.0 review

PeerBlock review

Email this article to a friend or colleague:

PLEASE NOTE: Your name is used only to let the recipient know who sent the story, and in case of transmission error. Both your name and the recipient's name and address will not be used for any other purpose.

Techworld White Papers

Database security: Preventing enterprise data leaks at the source

IDC discusses the growing internal threats to business information, the impact of government regulations on the protection of data, and how enterprises must adopt database security best practices...

Download Whitepaper

Service-oriented security

SOA has become an integral part of enterprise software by providing a framework to efficiently develop software as services that is easily sharable, reusable, and integrated. No where is the need more apparent than in the Identity Management space. Welcome to the age of Service-Oriented Security (SOS).

Download Whitepaper

Data protection prospective vendor checklist

Organisations need a way to map business needs against all these challenges in procuring a technical solution. To help, SANS has developed the following Prospective Vendor Checklist.

Download Whitepaper

Unlock the power of the mainframe

This whitepaper presents the notion of CICS as an integration hub based on a component-based, service-oriented architecture supporting Web services. Highlights will review the challenges and contrasted support for Web services natively in CICS.

Download Whitepaper

Techworld UK - Technology - Business

COLT White Paper

Are all VoIP services the same?

Questions to ask your service provider to ensure you get the VoIP service you need
With careful choice of partner, your business can have all the advantages of VoIP access - reduced costs, flexibility and simplicity - without the drawbacks.
This white paper is your guide to ensure you get right the VoIP service and details the pitfalls which businesses would do well to avoid.

Download white paper
BMC

Ride the express lane in the journey to speed ITIL adoption

Explore the challenges in making the journey to ITIL and the criteria for selecting consulting services
By following ITIL practices, your IT organisation will become more closely integrated with the business. We recommend making the journey to ITIL in a sequence of six incremental steps, the phases of which are driven through execution of a strategic transformational roadmap.

Download white paper

Webcast: IT Financial Management: Cost Optimisation for Efficiency and Agility.
On Demand Webcast
Join this webcast to learn about the techniques and technologies that can help you prove the value of IT to the business by understanding the true cost of today's IT services and those that will be necessary to deliver future success.

Register Today

Site Map

IDG Network

* *