Apple Pay Doesn’t Worry PayPal

PayPal and Apple Pay: The payments buzzwords seem to ignite a perception of constant competition. But perception may be off as PayPal CPO Hill Ferguson said the two company’s have different visions, Wireless Week reported Wednesday (Nov. 12).

“Last thing we want to do is try to be a replacement for a card swipe,” Wireless Week reported Ferguson said at the Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco. Ferguson said PayPal’s investment in SDKs to integrate where payments occur, and being able to pay more conveniently, is a track the company has already latched onto. This includes making the path to bring PayPal to retailers more seamless, the report said, including PayPal’s recent partnership agreement with BurgerKing.

“That focus on easing the path for developers has landed PayPal in a lot of branded apps,” Wireless Week reported. “PayPal is also integrated with Uber’s app, but Ferguson insisted that his company didn’t buy Braintree just to get into Uber. Braintree is a mobile payment processing service working in Uber, AirBnB and OpenTable, but PayPal’s interest in the company, which it acquired last year for $800 million, is more about expanding its mobile payments portfolio.”

PayPal’s partnerships may be expanding in the E-commerce world as there are indications Alibaba is interested in working with PayPal. Alibaba is also having talks with Apple about possible leveraging Apple Pay, but that move is also still in the negotiation process. Still, some in the industry still suggest PayPal should worry about Apple Pay.

While PayPal is still under eBay’s umbrella, that may impact how companies decide to define their relationship with PayPal, according to a Oct. 7 PYMNTS.com article that indicates Apple Pay could be hurting PayPal.

“If you’re below 30, PayPal’s not relevant,” said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster in the article. “With consumer awareness, Apple is out there overnight. That’s a piece PayPal is desperately struggling with.”

Once it splits from eBay, PayPal may be able to have more discretion with banks and retailers in ways Apple and Google have done with the smartphone digital payment field.

“PayPal’s ownership by eBay may have made other e-commerce merchants or technology companies reluctant to work closely with the unit, as evidenced by recent announcements by Apple and Twitter to partner with upstart payment rival Stripe,” wrote Praveen Menon and Paul Sweeney, analysts with Bloomberg Intelligence, in an investors note.