PayPal and Vodafone have teamed up to create a payment tool to rival Apple Pay that will see Vodafone users able to pay using PayPal at contactless terminals – so long as they have an Android phone. And are in Spain or Mexico initially.
The partnership – announced at Mobile World Congress 2016 – PayPal is all part of the company’s ambition to make payments and financial services “faster, simpler and more inclusive, whether online, in-app, in store or in new contexts”.
PayPal’s collaboration with Vodafone, one of Europe’s largest mobile carriers, will allow millions of PayPal’s European customers to be able to fund payments on Android smartphones at Visa contactless terminals using the Vodafone Wallet. The service will start in Spain and expand to additional European markets later this year.
PayPal is also working with leading telecom providers in Mexico and Brazil, Telcel and Claro, on their digital wallets to help their more than 140 million active users manage and make every day spend purchases via mobile devices. Through partnerships, and PayPal’s technology-agnostic approach, we are able to give merchants and consumers more flexibility and choice in how they want to pay and get paid.
At the launch, president and CEO of PayPal, Dan Schulman told delegates: “We have a tremendous opportunity to transform commerce and financial services, and mobile is at the center of that evolution. We are committed to giving people flexibility and choice in the ways they move and manage their money. Leveraging our mobile scale and leadership, platform-agnostic approach and partnerships, PayPal is uniquely poised to leverage new value propositions. We believe the financial system should be more seamless, secure and affordable to drive the hopes and aspirations of people outside the traditional financial system.”
PayPal also talked about its drive to make it easier for consumers to choose to pay whichever way they prefer including their favorite debit, credit and rewards cards. The company recently launched a redesigned mobile app in 145 markets around the world. An upcoming version of the app will support near field communications (NFC) starting in the United States and Australia later this year.
Android users will be able to simply tap and pay with their PayPal app at nearly any location that accepts contactless payments in the United States and Australia.
“PayPal constantly innovates to create seamless payments experiences for consumers online around the world,” says Schulman. “One Touch offers customers an online and mobile checkout experience without having to retype in payment information, usernames or passwords. 18 million consumers have now opted in to One Touch, which makes it one of the fastest adopted products in PayPal’s history, and PayPal today announced an additional 120 markets have been added, taking the total to 143 markets.”
In the United States, PayPal unveiled a private beta that provides retailers with an easy set of tools to allow them to securely sell to their customers wherever they are connecting digitally. Called PayPal Commerce, it opens up retail opportunities in new channels – from social networks to new experiences that have not yet seen any commercial applications.
