Tag: paypal

eBay acquires mobile commerce firm Braintree

| October 1, 2013

eBay continues to make aggressive moves in the mobile commerce field

Retail giant already boasts of a formidable presence in the mobile sector, but that does not mean that the company has grown complacent. Through its PayPal subsidiary, eBay has been working to engage consumers throughout the world on the field of mobile commerce. With mobile devices becoming more common, people around the world are beginning to engage in new forms of commerce. Mobile commerce has become one of the most lucrative fields in the mobile space and has attracted the interest of retail and technology companies of all kinds.

Braintree expects to process $12 billion in payments this year

This week, eBay announced its acquisition of Braintree, a mobile commerce specialist, for $800 million. The company plans to combine Braintree with the mobile payments division of PayPal in order to bolster its growing mobile commerce infrastructure. Braintree estimates that it will process more than $12 billion in mobile payments this year and it lists Rovio, OpenTable, TaskRabbit, and Heroku among its clients.

Venmo application now available to eBay

Through the acquisition, eBay has gained access to Braintree’s Venmo application, which facilitates mobile payments from smartphones and tablets. The application is yet another platform through which eBay and PayPal can engage mobile consumers. PayPal is a strong advocate of mobile commerce platforms that are not wholly reliant on NFC technology. The company has some security concerns when it comes to NFC and is also critical of the exclusive nature of the technology. The low availability of NFC-enabled mobile devices makes it difficult for many consumers to participate in mobile commerce in any meaningful way.

Braintree expected to continue current operations alongside PayPal

Braintree is expected to continue many of its current operations. Per the acquisition, the company will exist as a separate entity within PayPal and will provide services that will fall under the Braintree name. The company is also engaged in a partnership with Facebook concerning streamlining mobile commerce through the Auto Fill with Facebook initiative.

Facebook takes a step toward mobile commerce

| September 27, 2013

New partnerships could give Facebook a foothold in mobile commerce

Facebook has shown some interest in mobile commerce recently, but has yet to take any aggressive action on this interest. The social network facilitates mobile payments, mostly through the variety of social games it supports, but does not boast of a major presence in the mobile commerce sector. That may soon change, however, as Facebook has announced its partnership with PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree. The partnership with these companies may help Facebook gain a foothold in the mobile commerce space.

New service designed to make payments more convenient

Through the partnerships it has made, Facebook intends to deploy its “Autofill With Facebook” service. The service is meant to enhance the payment experience, making purchasing items online more convenient for consumers. The service functions like typical autofill features for web browsers, but focuses on financial information. Using the Autofill service allows consumers to store their financial information with Facebook, which can access this information to fill out payment forms in a convenient manner.

Facebook mobile commerceService is meant to supplement mobile commerce services

The service is not meant to compete with other mobile commerce services. Facebook intends for the Autofill service to be a supplement to mobile commerce, making payments less of a hassle for consumers on mobile devices. Facebook may eventually seek to compete in the mobile commerce space, but is currently content to provide auxiliary support for the wide variety of mobile commerce services that currently exist, all of which are vying for the attention of consumers.

Facebook focuses on marketing

Facebook currently has a strong focus on marketing rather than mobile commerce. The social network is working to become more attractive to marketers by improving its services relating to mobile advertisements. Last year, the social network introduced Facebook Graph Search, which is meant to give users a very deep insight into the various demographics that make use of the social networking platform. This search engine has been relatively well received by marketers.