Comments on: PayPal (Still) Looking To Mobile, But In The Wrong Places http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/02/03/paypal-still-looking-to-mobile-but-in-the-wrong-places/ Russell Buckley and Carlo Longino on mobile technology. Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:56:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: Mobile payments » Some doubts about PayPal and mobile payments http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/02/03/paypal-still-looking-to-mobile-but-in-the-wrong-places/comment-page-1/#comment-2153 Mobile payments » Some doubts about PayPal and mobile payments Sun, 12 Mar 2006 17:35:28 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/02/03/paypal-still-looking-to-mobile-but-in-the-wrong-places/#comment-2153 [...] To read the post: MobHappy March 12th, 2006 [...] [...] To read the post: MobHappy March 12th, 2006 [...]

]]> By: James Quintana Pearce http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/02/03/paypal-still-looking-to-mobile-but-in-the-wrong-places/comment-page-1/#comment-1643 James Quintana Pearce Sat, 04 Feb 2006 19:49:57 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/02/03/paypal-still-looking-to-mobile-but-in-the-wrong-places/#comment-1643 "reverse billing to a mobile phone bill works pretty well for mobile content." It works pretty well except that the carriers take a huge chunk of the proceeds. The expectation is that PayPal will take a much smaller percentage, equivalent to what they do online. If an online store is offering a mobile game for $4 if you have it charged to you phone bill or $2 if you use PayPal, I bet a significant number of people would choose the PayPal system. I assume that because you're accessing the mobile web through your phone PayPal can authenticate the device, which would be linked to your PayPal account. I see this being used to pay for mobile content via the mobile web rather than for payments in physical stores -- I'm with you on that one. And I agree that the interesting things in mobile banking are happening in Africa. There's one country that has a full bank accessible through mobile phones, which is way ahead of anywhere else... “reverse billing to a mobile phone bill works pretty well for mobile content.”

It works pretty well except that the carriers take a huge chunk of the proceeds. The expectation is that PayPal will take a much smaller percentage, equivalent to what they do online. If an online store is offering a mobile game for $4 if you have it charged to you phone bill or $2 if you use PayPal, I bet a significant number of people would choose the PayPal system.

I assume that because you’re accessing the mobile web through your phone PayPal can authenticate the device, which would be linked to your PayPal account. I see this being used to pay for mobile content via the mobile web rather than for payments in physical stores — I’m with you on that one.

And I agree that the interesting things in mobile banking are happening in Africa. There’s one country that has a full bank accessible through mobile phones, which is way ahead of anywhere else…

]]> By: William Volk http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/02/03/paypal-still-looking-to-mobile-but-in-the-wrong-places/comment-page-1/#comment-1641 William Volk Sat, 04 Feb 2006 18:08:53 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/02/03/paypal-still-looking-to-mobile-but-in-the-wrong-places/#comment-1641 Mobile content people who get all excited about the prospect of an alternative billing system for purchasing ringtones, wallpapers, games, and other mobile content items ... with the hope of smaller billing margins ... are forgetting some important issues: 1. Customers prefer content billed to their phone bill (P-SMS). It's "low friction" and because the purchases are added to an existing phone bill it's almost 'painless.' 2. The Carriers have no incentive to make a alternative payment system easy to use. Therefore if you want to have SHORTCODE ordering, or even do a binary SMS WAP-PUSH of the content, you'll pretty much have to use P-SMS. Want to make life difficult for your customers? Force them to enter a lengthy URL into their WAP (mobile) browser. Mobile content people who get all excited about the prospect of an alternative billing system for purchasing ringtones, wallpapers, games, and other mobile content items … with the hope of smaller billing margins … are forgetting some important issues:

1. Customers prefer content billed to their phone bill (P-SMS). It’s “low friction” and because the purchases are added to an existing phone bill it’s almost ‘painless.’

2. The Carriers have no incentive to make a alternative payment system easy to use. Therefore if you want to have SHORTCODE ordering, or even do a binary SMS WAP-PUSH of the content, you’ll pretty much have to use P-SMS. Want to make life difficult for your customers? Force them to enter a lengthy URL into their WAP (mobile) browser.

]]>