Tag: paypal

eBay mobile payments app finds success with young adults

| May 7, 2014

New payments application is helping eBay become more appealing in the mobile space

Leading online retailer eBay has been putting more focus on the mobile sector in recent years. Much of the company’s efforts in the mobile field are being handled by PayPal, but eBay has also been flexing its own proverbial muscles in the mobile space, hoping to promote mobile payments among young adults. eBay’s Venmo peer-to-peer payments application has seen strong growth recently among this demographic, which suggests that the company’s efforts may be paying off.

Venmo finds success among college students thanks to its social networking features

Venmo has become quite popular with young adults on college campuses. Many people are using this application to settle debts among one another or split the cost of meals at restaurants. The application is designed more like a social network than a typical payment processor. Venmo boasts of a news feed that tracks transactions that users want to share publicly, but does not show the actual amount being paid. Users can interact with one another in a manner resembling Twitter while also seeing what their friends are purchasing and what they have to say about those products.

Voyeurism helps boost the attraction of eBay’s mobile application

eBay - Mobile PaymentsSocial network voyeurism is nothing new. It is quite common for people to browse the social feeds of their friends to see what they are doing on a daily basis. Indeed, this is one of the primary reason social networks are so popular. eBay claims that this voyeurism is what makes the Venmo application so popular among young consumers as it reinforces the application’s network effect.

Venmo will have to compete with other mobile payments platforms in order to become a success

Venmo is still relatively new to the mobile payments field. Though the application has managed to find a degree of success, it still must compete with other, more popular platforms before it can be considered a competitive mobile commerce platform. Both Google and Square currently represent some of eBay’s most challenging competition in the mobile field and these two companies will not be easily beaten.

PayPal launches rebranding campaign in response to competition in mobile payments space

| May 2, 2014

PayPal to undergo a major rebrand in order to beat out the competition it is facing from other companies

PayPal is about to undergo a massive and somewhat unexpected rebranding. The eBay-owned company has been operating for several years and has managed to avoid making any serious brand changes for the majority of its existence. Now, however, PayPal is seeing competition in the mobile payments market rise to new heights, which has the company somewhat worried about its ability to continue standing out to consumers from amongst its competitors.

Campaign to focus primarily on the North American and European markets

The rebranding campaign will be a global effort and will involve the adoption of a new logo and a new slogan, which will be “powering the people economy.” Australia is expected to be the first market to see the changes being made to PayPal. The associated marketing campaign for the rebranding initiative will focus primarily on the North American and European market after launching in Australia. PayPal currently boasts of one of the strongest mobile commerce presences in these two markets.

PayPal aims to beat back competition coming from large companies

PayPal - Mobile PaymentsPayPal has managed to establish a strong foothold in the mobile space because it was one of the first to begin engaging mobile consumers aggressively. Over the past few years, however, other companies have been growing more mobile-centric, taking note of the growing number of consumers that are taking part in mobile shopping and payments. Large companies like Apple and Google have been making a move to break into the mobile commerce space, and they could potentially replace PayPal as one of the most powerful names in the mobile field.

Competition continues to benefit consumers, but be harmful to some companies

The large number of companies, both old and new, beginning to participate in the mobile commerce space has created a very competitive atmosphere within the sector. An abundance of competition has been a benefit for consumers, as it has given them access to a wide range of mobile commerce platforms to choose from, but this competition has also made it difficult for companies to establish themselves as leaders in the mobile field.