PayPal Mobile will enable payments, purchases and donations from mobile phones for its 10 million UK accounts
PayPal is introducing PayPal Mobile in the UK. The new service, scheduled for launch by the end of this month, is claimed to be the first mass-market mobile payments system launched by an established financial services business.
According to PayPal, the service will enable people to buy goods by sending money through their mobile phones. It will also enable PayPal users to send money to each other via their mobile phones using the company’s person-to-person payment service.
Using PayPal Mobile’s “Text to Buy” service, consumers will be able to make instant purchases, such as CDs, DVDs, shoes and clothes, by sending product codes via text message. Items will then be delivered to home addresses already saved in the buyers’ PayPal accounts.
Merchants who have signed up to PayPal’s new mobile service will be able to open new direct sales channels to buyers, while consumers will be able to see an advertisement – in a magazine, or on TV for example – and purchase products immediately. PayPal Mobile will also enable users to donate money to charities, instantly.
“PayPal Mobile is the first mobile payments system launched by a major consumer financial services business that is starting out with an established user-base,” said Geoff Iddison chief executive of PayPal Europe. “The system will kick-start mobile payments in the UK and globally, and revolutionise the way people pay, as well as how companies can track advertising effectiveness.
“PayPal already has over 10 million UK accounts – and over 105 million accounts worldwide – and our users trust our safe and secure systems with their personal and financial information. PayPal Mobile will make sending secure payments as easy as sending a text message anytime, from anywhere.
“The system is password protected, so even if an account holder’s phone is lost or stolen, the PayPal account remains secure. Like all transactions with PayPal, mobile payments are safe for all our users and customers’ financial details are not shared with merchants: they remain within the PayPal network at all times.”