Successful acquisition of Modest may improve PayPal’s presence in the mobile commerce market
PayPal has announced that it has acquired mobile commerce startup Modest. The Modest platform was designed to make mobile shopping much more convenient, introducing the concept of “contextual commerce,” which involves the use of contextual information in order to engage consumers more effectively. Modest has become a specialist in this aspect of the mobile space and has enabled merchants to sell products in an effective manner on a variety of platforms.
PayPal continues to establish dominance in the mobile payments field
PayPal has established a very strong presence in the mobile commerce market, having been an early pioneer of mobile payments. The company has been making several acquisitions in recent years in order to establish a greater foothold in this space. In 2013, PayPal acquired Braintree, which augmented the company’s position in the mobile commerce space and gave PayPal access to promising new technology that is being used to facilitate transactions.
Contextual commerce could become a powerful tool for PayPal
Regarding the acquisition, PayPal sees a great deal of promise in contextual commerce, believing that it represents a new frontier for the overall commerce space. This frontier is growing quickly and Modest is one of the few companies that have managed to establish a prominent foothold in this growing sector. The acquisition of Modest may allow PayPal to provide better services to merchants that are becoming more interested in engaging mobile consumers, but how PayPal and Modest will work together is not yet clear.
Modest will further augment PayPal’s ability to serve mobile-centric merchants and consumers
Modest allows its users to construct mobile applications or integrate an online store into their existing application. This allows them to sell products through editorial content on blogs or through advertisements and similar content, leveraging the power of “buy” buttons that have begun gaining popularity in the mobile media space. The Modest team will be working with Braintree in order to make mobile payments for PayPal more comprehensive. This represents the first acquisition that PayPal has made since it split from eBay.
BlackBerry has involved itself in the mobile commerce space in the past, but has found limited success in doing so. BBM Money was one of the first mobile payments service from the company, which allowed users to send funds to others. They could also use this service to send people pre-paid mobile credit, which could be used for a variety of purposes. BlackBerry has not found the same success in mobile commerce as other companies, such as PayPal and Google.