During the recent PayPal Developer Conference held from October 26, 2010 to October 27, 2010, the company announced a range of new products including their new micropayments product and an apps platform. These products are aimed specially towards businesses and the release of the new version of their popular iPhone application has seen a great response from the users. The application allows the users to find businesses near their immediate location which accept PayPal as a form of payment, making it easy for them to make payments using their PayPal account.
Stores within a locality are able to attract more users to them using this application. The application also allows merchants of these businesses to post deals and promotions to the app to attract nearby customers. This is the biggest selling point which PayPal offers to merchants by allowing them to offer deals and incentives to attract customers. Whether it is a nearby store, or a restaurant, customers can search for just about anything using the search location in the application, select a store or service and check out their special offers. The application also allows the customers to pay the merchant using their PayPal application, and they can later collect their goods from the merchant store physically.
The new app by PayPal gives a competitive edge to the local merchants, as this way they are able to accept payments both online and offline, and hence generate more revenue. By reaching out to the local payment space, PayPal has come in competition with another noteworthy competitor: Google Checkout. Although not as popular as PayPal when it comes to the number of users, Google Checkout has a competitive edge over PayPal when it comes to Google Places. Services by Google including Google Maps and Google Places allow local businesses to list themselves, and post and edit information regarding their business in real time. These businesses get listed in Google search results and get traffic and users as a result of being listed.
Taking advantage of this service, Google can easily turn on Google Checkout as a payment method for all these local merchants and extend their service to mobile phones also, similar to what PayPal has done. For PayPal, it is difficult to reach out to all the local businesses and teach them how to use PayPal and also their mobile phone application. However, Google has an advantage over PayPal as they already have millions of local businesses listed in Google Local, which means it would be easy for them to reach to local businesses if they launch their own mobile app as a payment mechanism.
The fact that PayPal lacks the advantage of reaching to the local merchants individually is the main reason why their new mobile app for payment processing for local merchants is being tested in a limited market in the San Francisco. Google Checkout may be lacking the number of users that PayPal has when it comes to the payments area, but it is way ahead in the war when it comes to the local market. The whole battle of the two payment platforms will definitely get a lot more interesting in the coming years!
Author Bio Anthony is a chief editor since early 2007, and he currently works for MyDUIattorney. A website that helps you to find the right DUI lawyer, you can search for a New Jersey DUI Attorney or for Best Maryland DUI Lawyer online, anytime!
