Asia seems to be the next big destination for most tech companies in the west to expand their current business operations. While Google had to face censorship in China, PayPal is confident about its expansion plans in Asia-Pacific. In the present cut-throat competition, companies need to reinvent the wheel and innovate to change the way business is done. Paypal (now owned by eBay) has taken a step in this direction with Rupert Keeley (Asia-Pacific’s chief) announcing the launch of its first payments service for smartphones in Asia.
The service is to be called as “Paypal Here” and would involve a triangular-shaped card reader that that can be plugged into your phone or tablet’s headphone jack. The device will be accompanied with software that needs to be installed on the merchant’s iPad, iPhone or Android phone. In case you don’t have the dongle, the shopkeeper can just take a snapshot of your card and process the payment. This step is certainly to profit PayPal in a big way as according to research, Asia’s retail market itself is worth $1.3 trillion.
Keeley announced that Paypal will be expanding its business in Asia in coming 12 to 18 months. The mobile payment services will be available first in Hong Kong and Australia, while licensing process for China is under way. The company also announced that it will soon be opening new offices in the region, including India. Notably, Paypal already has development centers in India and Singapore. This is certainly good news for those who have Paypal accounts in the region as now they can use their Paypal accounts for shopping more, thanks to the new seamless integration with mobile devices. It will also help small businesses in a big way as they won’t need to have merchant accounts with the banks.
Via: Brecorder