PayPal Joins GlobalPlatform

PayPal sees the mobile market as an avenue of growth, and it joined GlobalPlatform on Tuesday to help spur adoption of mobile payment methods.

GlobalPlatform is an international standards body that seeks to create an interoperable smart card infrastructure, which could lead to widespread adoption of things like contact-less payments systems in phones. The eBay-owned PayPal will participate on the advisory council, and it will contribute technical knowledge in the mobile and card areas.

"Membership in GlobalPlatform is a logical step for PayPal," said Eric Duprat, general manager of PayPal's mobile unit, in a statement. "We recognize the value of sharing knowledge in a way that will benefit the industry as a whole through robust technical standards, greater interoperability, and ultimately the wider adoption of online and mobile payments around the world."

This is just the latest move by PayPal to establish a larger role in the mobile payment market. The company already has a client for cell phones that enables users to check their balances, send and receive money requests, and buy things with eBay Mobile. PayPal also is expected to receive a boost in the mobile market by being the payment system for Research In Motion's BlackBerry App World.

PayPal also is working on a program that lets customers use their handsets to buy products. The system would have merchants put special codes on ads or in-store displays, and the buyer could then get the merchandise by text messaging the product code to a number in the advertisement. The product would then be shipped to the address associated with the buyer's PayPal account.

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