PayPal expanded its scope as a mobile wallet gateway by getting into a strategic partnership with Android Pay. What that means is that all existing PayPal users will be able to make purchases at those places that are compatible with Android Pay.
This again marks an important development in PayPal’s goal to further enhance its reach as the preferred mobile wallet option across the world. That no doubt has been achieved to a large extent now that PayPal will be accepted for all purchases made online, in-app or from brick-and-mortar stores that have an arrangement with Android pay.
PayPal also has partnerships going with Visa and MasterCard along with other firms such as Citi, FIS, and Facebook. A similar arrangement with Discover ensures the latter’s token services is available to PayPal users as another convenient option to make payments.
With their arrangement with Android Pay, users will now be able to pay out of their PayPal balances though company COO Bill Ready stated they are looking to enable users to also pay via their cards that the PayPal account has been linked with.
The partnership between Android Pay and PayPal can also be seen as a consolidation of sorts for the various mobile payment wallet options that have come up off late. Notable among those include Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, the two biggest companies currently dominating the consumer tech landscape the world over.
However, while both Samsung Pay and Apple Pay do not have any partnerships with PayPal at the moment, such link-ups can’t be ruled out either in future; particularly when companies look to provide the widest possible payment options to its customers. The overall size of the mobile payment market too could be another factor for the various companies to join hands.
As a rough estimate of the sheer size of transactions made via mobile, PayPal revealed they have dealt with mobile payments to the tune of $102 billion last year alone. Also, the total transaction figures made via mobile stood at an equally impressive two billion.
Currently, the partnership between Android Pay and PayPal will be relevant to only US residents with no word yet as to when it will be expanded to other parts.
