Comments for PayPal's X: A Platform to Pick Your Pocket

PayPal's X: A Platform to Pick Your Pocket

2009-11-03T20:44:07Z

After waiting for two months for PayPal to release its much-anticipated platform, the day has finally arrived for PayPal X. ReadWriteWeb first covered the company's announcement in late July and today, at San Francisco's Concourse Exhibition Center, developers and press people waited with bated breath to see what was earlier described as a "platform as ubiquitous as the electrical outlet."

]]> Said eBay CEO John Donohoe, "We believe that consumer behavior will change in the next three years, more than in the last ten. Think about it this way: this year: the eBay iPhone app will do $500 million dollars in volume on a device that didn't exist two years ago, on an application that didn't exist one year ago."

Said Osama Bedier, PayPal's VP of Product Development, "We'll do 70 billion in sales this year, but there's $30 trillion dollars being spent globally. We need to tap into this... You are the X factor."

Developers can access X.com's SDKs, technical docs and API support tools to produce integrated checkout solutions. Examples of some pre-existing products using the new Adaptive Payments API include:

The Javastore's new drag-and-drop installation and frictionless payment system;

Instant storefronts for Facebook via Payvment's social network shopping cart system; and

Cut-and-paste shopping solutions embedded in mobile applications, including instant purchases via ShopSavvy's barcode-enabled comparative shopping Android application.

So far, one of the key points of this morning's proceedings has been mention of the "removal of pricing barriers." As a direct shot at Amazon, the company plans to offer what it describes as an "enhanced pricing structure," with a $0.50 flat fee per transaction. For more on today's PayPal developer event, check back here for details.

Comment from Anuj on 2009-11-07

2009-11-07T20:37:08Z

mukzz - sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I only just saw your comment. Our merchants don't seem to be having an issue with the account-based pricing we currently offer (per the reason I stated above - they tend to sell goods that benefit from either our micropayments or general pricing) but we are always looking to improve our service and if merchants tell us that they want to move to a transactional pricing model, we will of course investigate it. Thanks for your comment.

Comment from mukzz on 2009-11-03

2009-11-04T00:46:53Z

Anuj, why not allow them both at the same time? :)

Reminiscent of what telcos do with their calling plans: we give you a special on certain calls, but we'll rip you off everywhere else.

One can always have 2 different accounts for 2 different plans, but ain't the whole purpose of this X-thingy is to make it simpler?

Comment from Anuj on 2009-11-03

2009-11-03T23:47:07Z

hi @mukzz, I work for PayPal and I just wanted to respond to your comment. We have micropayments pricing for transactions under $10. It's 5% plus $0.05. Our traditional e-commerce pricing is 2.9% plus $0.30 with volume discounts that apply. we have a number of merchants using the micropayments pricing and our experience is that if their business model is for small dollar transactions, they'll never sell a $100 item.

Comment from mukzz on 2009-11-03

2009-11-03T22:34:49Z

An interesting micropayments rip-off.
You can't have normal pricing and micropayments one within the same account.
So if you sell a $100 item they will take 5% instead normal 2.4% - 3.5%.

Wonder if this is an oversight or deliberate.

Comment from BWI on 2009-11-03

2009-11-03T22:23:06Z

Hey! I remember X.com. It was Paypal before it was Paypal. Remembering the days of old Palo Alto.

Comment from Blue Sail Creative on 2009-11-03

2009-11-03T21:16:52Z

This is very useful information that I can share with my clients, it may make the paypal platform very attractive again.