PayPal demonstrates P2P widget

On July 13, 2011, Laura Chambers, PayPal Inc.'s Senior Director of PayPal Mobile, introduced the company's new peer-to-peer (P2P) near field communication technology (NFC) service at VentureBeat's MobileBeat conference in San Francisco.

The new service employs an NFC-enabled Google Inc. Android widget that allows people to transfer funds from one person to one another by simply tapping two Samsung Nexus S phones together.

In a blog posted the same day as her MobileBeat demonstration, Chambers wrote, "We're seeing staggering growth in PayPal mobile payments, showing a real consumer desire for the way they shop and pay to catch up with the way we live. But at PayPal, we've said all along that consumer behavior won't change unless we're able to offer an experience that's truly better than what's available today.

"We've been looking at NFC technology for a while and we saw a tremendous opportunity to combine the best of NFC and the best of PayPal."

Tweets on PayPal's growth

After the demonstration, Chambers tweeted, "We grew from $141 million in mobile payments in '09 to +$3billion expected this year. & its only July." She added in a second tweet, "Our DNA is payments. We have great technologies and we are making great acquisitions like @Where and @Zong."

The recently purchased Zong is a mobile commerce payment company and Where is a location media mobile application company. PayPal is heavily emphasizing new payment technology while stressing its leadership in alternative payments.

"We have had a PayPal wallet for 12 yrs.," Chambers tweeted. "We help people pay the way they want – not just prvidng a wallet." She went on to stress in another tweet that her company understands NFC technology doesn't work well for all situations. "Some merchants call NFC Not For Commerce," she noted. "They've tried it before." The new PayPal Mobile Android widget is expected to be available to consumers later this summer. For a video demonstration of how the widget works, go to www.thepaypalblog.com/2011/07/paypal-uses-nfc-to-make-peer-to-peer-payments-easier-than-ever/ .

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