Paul Krill
Editor at Large

PayPal opening payment platform to developers

news
Jul 24, 20092 mins

PayPal to offer APIs for embedding payment system into apps, seeks user ideas

PayPal this week said it would open its payment platform to third-party developers via APIs for embedding the PayPal payment system into applications and platforms.

Developers will be able to build ways to send and receive payments for services beyond traditional e-commerce, PayPal said. This market, according to a recent report, represents a $30 trillion opportunity, PayPal said. The company has provided a secure, global payments network for e-commerce and person-to-person transactions.

[ Read more PayPal news on InfoWorld: “PayPal buys Fraud Sciences for $169M” | Stay ahead of advances in mobile technology with InfoWorld’s Mobile Edge blog and Mobilize newsletter.]

“Until now, developer innovation has been stifled by the barriers payment systems impose,” said Scott Thompson, president of PayPal, in a statement released by the company. “With an open platform, we’re solving fundamental challenges people face when trying to pay or get paid and giving people the tools to create new business models for their innovations.”

As part of a beta program, several developers have integrated PayPal’s new APIs, including Twitpay, a Twitter-based payment service, and Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud platform. PayPal seeks ideas from its users for interesting to ways pay in the future. Ideas can be submitted to PayPal and Twitter with the hashtag #changehowwepay, with responses viewable at changehowwepay.com.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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