PayPal Steps It Up Against Visa and MasterCard

Recently, PayPal held a mini-summit at Rancho Palos Verdes in CA to showcase some of their new offerings and their view of the mobile future. Branded "Shopping Utopia", PayPal presented nothing completely groundbreaking, but did bring up some very interesting concepts:

• A break away from the NFC-mania (some attribute it to our "gadget-driven culture". Whatever you call it, it's probably true that NFC is over-hyped right now. Esp. considering that forecasts estimate that it won't really take over for at least another 3 years due to infrastructure). With a software update (that's right- no new hardware) PayPal hopes to offer a way to check out using a phone number and a PIN. I think this is also very apt since they announced pretty recently that, "There will be no NFC at merchants any time soon..." I love that they're actually realistic about the things that need to happen before NFC can actually happen!
• A commitment to social networks. We've been talking about how mobile/social continue to move closer to being one and the same, but most of PayPal's new offerings will be connected to a social "check in" service like Foursquare. This could be a play for them to get in closer with merchants to start a loyalty/coupon play, or a way for them to get into the data analytics/advertising side by tracking their customers. For another funny article check out "Socially Awkward Teens May Drive Mobile Payments Adoption"
• Deepening an existing relationship. In a very streamlined way, if you are in a store and would like to charge a new TV to your card but don't have a high enough credit limit on your Visa, PayPal will actually offer you to immediately apply for credit. Not only does this make me want to use their service (no worries about big purchases), but as an existing PayPal customer, it makes me more likely to create a deeper connection with PayPal.

Also Finextra offered a new mobile forecast. They predict that mpayments will overcome plastic volumes within 10 years.

In related news The Post Office is also now blaming mpayments/e-payments as one of the reasons it's going out of business, claiming that because P2P and bill pay is so much easier now, not many people are using the post office any more. I blame it on the fact that the Post Office has terrible service.

I think it's interesting to note how mobile FS players are really trying for this in-aisle check out thing. It also has wide-ranging perks for all people along the value chain- hardware manufacturers, software manufacturers, app developers and the end financial service institution all benefit. Or, if you're Apple, you just sell Lowes a million iPhones.

Either way, we should all probably keep an eye on eBay/ PayPal, because although they've been a little quieter and less flashy about their predictions and plans for the future, they have amassed quite a collection of supportive technologies for The Mobile Revolution (it's like The Zombie Apocalypse, but more geeky).