PayPal Chief Predicts Mobile Payments’ Dominance
PayPal president David Marcus predicts that all urban consumers will be able to make mobile payments within five years, and that PayPal aims to be at the forefront of this trend. “Mobile is the territory where we want to lead and be best-in-class at across the board,” Marcus says. Meanwhile, he says PayPal has trumped many rivals through its efforts to harness the various payment platforms, and also is experimenting with technologies that go beyond its desktop channel and mobile apps. He notes, for example, that PayPal is exploring EMV chip technologies, although he takes a cautious view on EMV utilization and thinks its long-term prospects in the digital app age are limited. Marcus also implies that PayPal does not drastically rework its interfaces and infrastructures out of consideration of its merchant base, particularly small business owners. This argument mirrors a common phenomenon for mobile and digital payments, in which merchants cannot afford the constant investments in time or money that new technologies require, especially when they are uncertain that customers will respond.
From “PayPal Chief on the State of Digital Payments: Mobile Is Everything”
ZDNet (01/22/14) King, Rachel