PayPal Compares its New Transaction Tool to the Electrical Outlet
PayPal announced what it calls the first global payment platform open to outside developers today. The company said it believes the move will make PayPal a bigger business than eBay and help foster a future where online payment capabilities are like electrical outlets - ubiquitous, enabling, financially and technologically fecund. It's an incredibly ambitious vision, but a logical one.
The new Application Programming Interface (API) is due to become available in early November. It will let software developers plug PayPal payment functionality into their systems to leverage the company's transaction, currency and security capabilities. Most interesting to us was the electric outlet analogy.
The company's announcement today began with a slickly produced video showing people making payments for goods using software inside physical shopping carts, refrigerators and televisions. The payments in these as-yet fictional scenes were processed by PayPal, of course. The technical hooks that make up the new API will enable software makers to use PayPal more quickly, easily and in much more sophisticated ways than simple use of a PayPal merchant account allows today.
Osama Bedier, PayPal's VP of Product Development, said at the announcement event that just like electrical outlets facilitated increased consumption of electricity, "a secure global payment system will let the internet reach parts of our lives we can't even imagine." More and different ways of using the internet will be invented once monetization is possible and a profit motive present for those inventions, he argued.
That makes sense. It is a little unnerving to imagine the global system providing that platform being controlled by one company, but fortunately PayPal is following the footsteps of Amazon and its related Flexible Payment System. (See Leena Rao's account for a comparison of the two systems.)
PayPal believes it can grow even more central to the online payment economy. Ina Fried quotes CEO John Donohue at a separate event today as having said "PayPal is a business that will be bigger than eBay."
Electricity is certainly bigger than auctioneering, even if it does lack its own charming patois.
Whether or not PayPal is the company to pull off this grand vision of distributed, global, secure online payments is another question - but the analogy used by Bedier to describe the vision seems like a sound and important one. A trusted, secure, easy, sophisticated online payment system could very well foster a fundamentally different era in online computing by enabling developers to develop in a financially sustainable way.
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On Sunday I tried to use Paypal to purchase an airline ticket and the transaction failed. Worse, the funds were in limbo for 48 hours forcing me to use my credit card. The Paypal representative did not call me back as promised (agent 45629) Finally the two companies blamed each other and I still don't know what took place.
Based on that experience, I'd say they are a long way away.
My concern is that Paypal already charges what I consider to be outrageous prices, especially for international users. If they ever monopolized this industry, online payments, I'd be dismayed. Come on Google, get Checkout up to speed and give Paypal some decent competition!
I'm glad you made that point Richard. With the DOJ sniffing around Google's yard, I'm surprised they are not giving eBay's PayPal a closer look instead.
And what's with comparing everything to the electrical outlet (or electricity) lately? Didn't Jack Dorsey do that not too long ago with Twitter?
wow, they finally get it over at paypal.
i had 50k locked up for 180 days in paypal hell as they debated internally how to handle a not very complicated situation.
of course their decision wasn't consistent with anything else they'd done up until that point, nor after. and forget getting someone on the phone who can actually do something.
they have a LONG way to go
Richards comment nails it. Their rates are high, and based on percentages. Taking out $1,000 today? Oh, that will be $10.50 please.
According to the creep normal bunca I think this price
No thanks. I want nothing to do with PayPal. When it comes to my money I want prompt and GOOD customer service, unfortunately, PayPal has neither.
All the comments so far seem valid, but they are only service and customer satisfaction issues.
Assume they overhaul their response mechanisms, revenue terms, percentage system. How will this "plug-point" technology really change things, if at all?
Let's hear some views on the technology, shall we?
No thanks. I want nothing to do with PayPal. When it comes to my money I want prompt and GOOD customer service, unfortunately, PayPal has neither.
I'm glad you made that point Richard. With the DOJ sniffing around Google's yard, I'm surprised they are not giving eBay's PayPal a closer look instead.
And what's with comparing everything to the electrical outlet (or electricity) lately? Didn't Jack Dorsey do that not too long ago with Twitter?
wow i wonder if paypal will go offline
why many people dont like paypal, is it them use they account wisely
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