PayPal announced plans to open its payment platform to third-party developers with the release of new APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow developers to embed PayPal’s secure global payment system into their applications and platforms.
In opening up the PayPal platform, developers can now create new ways to send and receive payments for services beyond traditional e-commerce. According to a recent McKinsey report, the global payments market represents a $30 trillion opportunity.
PayPal has spent over a decade creating a secure, global payments network for e–commerce and person-to-person transactions, which seamlessly integrates 27 financial networks, 15,000 local banks, 190 global markets and supports 19 currencies.
Pilot Programs Underway
Several developers have integrated PayPal’s new APIs as part of a beta program. Some of these companies include Twitpay, a Twitter-based payment service; LiveOps, with its new on-demand workforce service called LiveWork; and Microsoft’s Windows® Azure™ platform, a cloud development environment.
Change the Way We Pay
PayPal also wants to hear ideas for innovative and interesting ways to pay in the future from its community of users. Anyone with ideas is invited to submit them to PayPal and the world via Twitter with the hashtag #changehowwepay and can view responses at www.changehowwepay.com.
Quotes
“Until now, developer innovation has been stifled by the barriers payment systems impose,” said Scott Thompson, President of PayPal. “With an open platform, we’re solving fundamental challenges people face when trying to pay or get paid and giving people the tools to create new business models for their innovations.”
“The Windows Azure platform provides developers with a scalable, interoperable cloud development environment to build and deploy services and applications,” said Yousef Khalidi, Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft. “By allowing the developer community to take advantage of the PayPal adaptive payment platform through the Windows Azure platform, developers will have the opportunity to utilize a billing solution for the Windows Azure platform services they offer by providing customers with an easy on-line payment program option.”
“Using PayPal’s new open platform, we’ve dramatically improved the experience of commerce over the social phenomenon, Twitter,” said Michael Ivey, CEO and co-founder of Twitpay. “The global nature and ubiquity of the PayPal service helps us deliver a great service for Twitter users.”
“We were impressed by the seamless integration and the flexibility of PayPal’s payment solution to address LiveWork’s team-based virtual workforce model,” said Eckart Walther, LiveOps SVP and GM of LiveWork. “With LiveWork, different workers can receive different payment amounts based on client specifications. PayPal automatically calculates and distributes the appropriate amounts to each worker and service provider. Moreover, PayPal’s established global payment solution allows LiveWork clients to easily tap into the global work community.”
Additional Information
- PayPal launches “Change How Way We Pay” www.changehowwepay.com challenge
- Register now for PayPal’s Developer Conference on November 3, 2009 www.x.com/platformpreview
- Watch the PayPal Platform Preview event. www.x.com/platformpreview
- Follow the conversation on Twitter: @PayPal, @PayPalDeveloper, #PlatformPreview
- For more information on the PayPal platform, visit www.x.com
About PayPal
PayPal is the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online. The service allows members to send money without sharing financial information, with the flexibility to pay using their account balances, bank accounts, credit cards or personal financing. With more than 75 million active accounts in 190 markets and 19 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global ecommerce. PayPal is an eBay company and is made up of three leading online payment services: the PayPal global payments platform, the Payflow Gateway, and Bill Me Later. More information about the company can be found at https://www.paypal.com.