PayPal Archives - Page 38 of 39

Bank of America and PayPal are Only Financial Brands in Apple’s App Store at Launch

By Jim Bruene Posted on July 10, 2008
Categories: Apple, Bank of America, iPhone, PayPal

Bank of America once again proved its mobile mettle as the only financial institution to have a native app available at the launch of Apple’s new App Store (note 1). PayPal also launched an app on Day 1 (see screenshot below). Both are free.

Bank of America iPhone 2.0 App in Apple App Store in iTunes (10 July 2008)

Apple launched the store today within iTunes (see note 1). There are 552 apps at launch according to Pinch Media, Here’s the price breakdown:

Free – 135
$0.99 – 85
$1.99 to $3.99 – 110*
$4.99 – 62
$5.99 to $8.99 – 35*
$9.99 – 82
more than $10 – 40*

The new Finance category in the App Store has 23 entries at launch. Most are small utilities for calculating tips or splitting the dinner check. Only two recognizable brands are available, PayPal (lower left) and Bank of America, which by design or omission, is listed not with its name but as simply “mobile banking.”

Finance listings in Apple App Store in iTune 7.7 (10 July 2008)

PayPal App (10 July 2008)

Notes:

*Interpolated from graph, plus or minus 3%

1. To view the App Store, download iTunes v. 7.7. Some users including myself (Windows bug?) have reported not being able to see it even after updating iTunes. I was able to access through this link published by TechCrunch.

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PayPal Offers $50 Rebate at Northwest Airlines

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 26, 2008
Categories: Email Samples, Epayments, PayPal

In the richest alt-payment bonus we've seen in a long time, PayPal users earn a $50 account credit for purchasing airline tickets at Northwest Air's NWA.com between March 13 and March 27.

The bonus was prominently featured in a promotional email sent to WorldPerks members yesterday (see below). Only one bonus per PayPal account is allowed, and the fare must be at least $250.

PayPal is also accepted at Southwest, AirTran and US Airways.

Airline	Number of PayPal Transactions*
Northwest	9,018
US Airways	3,825
Southwest Air	not listed
AirTran	not listed

*Source: PayPal, 26 March 2007, online shopping center

Email message to Northwest WorldPerks members (25 March 2008)

Landing page (link)

NWA.com fare search
The PayPal logo featured in regular fare search at NWA.com, but there is no mention of the $50 bonus.

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Revolution Money Adds Facebook App for P2P Payments, Pays $25 Bonus

By Jim Bruene Posted on January 27, 2008
Categories: Facebook, PayPal, Revolution Money

As Facebook and other social networks move into various ecommerce activities, payments will take a larger role. There are rumors that Facebook may be developing its own payment capabilities, but that seems outside its core business, so I'm skeptical.

There are several payment companies already vying for attention at Facebook:

PayPal launched a Facebook app in July; it allows users to collect funds from friends or to raise money for a cause (previous coverage here).
PayMe is a service that uses the PayPal engine for person-to-person payments (previous coverage here).
Chip-In also uses the PayPal engine to gather group donations for a specific goal (previous coverage here ).

The latest on Facebook is Revolution Money, the credit card alternative backed by AOL founder Steve Case. In December, the company launched a Facebook application to support its person-to-person service, MoneyExchange, which is aimed squarely at PayPal's lucrative franchise (screenshot below). Users that sign up on Facebook receive a $25 bonus (through Feb. 29), an offer that is not available on the main MoneyExchange website.

So far, the Facebook is light with only 16 daily users listed today. But as social network users find out how easy it is to settle their debts with friends through the network, we expect a significant volume of funds flowing through the social networks.

For more information, read our Social Personal Finance report (Online Banking Report #142/143).

Revolution Money's MoneyExchange App on Facebook

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eBay Pitches Co-branded MasterCard to Bidders

By Jim Bruene Posted on November 20, 2007
Categories: Account opening, Credit/Debit Cards, Ebay, Email Samples, GE Money, PayPal

Given how many times I've had to tell clerks, "no, I really don't care to save $18 on my purchase today" (by adding yet another revolving credit product to my life), the come-on at checkout must work pretty well. Amazon has used this approach at online checkout for years, offering up to $30 in savings if approved for its co-branded credit card.

eBay recently began pitching its eBay MasterCard to bidders in its online auctions. As you can see below, a small "up to $25 back" is presented to users as they consider what bid amount to enter. The card is issued by GE Money and requires a PayPal account. Customers can opt to display their eBay userid on the no-annual-fee card.

Analysis
I also received an email offer last night (7:34 PM Pacific) for the card (see screenshot below). It's an attractive holiday-themed message with the slightly misleading email subject line, "Get 10% off eBay purchases through Dec. 15." I clicked on it wondering why eBay would offer me, a frequent buyer, such a substantial savings. It turns out to only apply to the first $250 spent, for a $25 savings, not so rich compared to other credit card offers I typically receive in the mail. But with the tight integration and 30-second loan application, it should provide a reasonable flow of new applications.

The online application is simple and fast with pre-populated personal info and a 30-second approval promise. All I had to do on the first page (note 1) was decide whether to put my eBay ID on the plastic and enter my birthdate (see screenshot below). However, the process is marred by the upsell of credit insurance disguised under the seemingly innocuous heading (see closeup below):

Yes, enroll me in the Account Security program.

Granted, the cost is clearly disclosed, however, many applicants will check the box thinking they are protecting themselves from fraud, and only later find out they are paying an extra 1.5% per month (that's $900 per year on a $5,000 balance) for an insurance product they probably don't need. With all the problems its had with phishing and fraud, eBay should NOT trick customers into signing on for credit insurance under the guise of "security."

Email solicitation from eBay (19 November 2007)

Landing page for email solicitation of eBay MasterCard (19 November 2007)

Note:

1. I did not proceed past the first page because I could not tell if hitting "continue" at that point would trigger a credit application. They may ask income and employment questions on the next page.

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Splash Screens: PayPal Promoting its Debit Card at Login

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 10, 2007
Categories: Epayments, PayPal

Logging in today at PayPal, I was greeted with a full-screen message promoting its debit card (see screenshot below). Note the prominence of the yellow Apply Now button compared to the Go to my account in the lower right. The company has offered a debit card option for more than five years and promotes it from time to time within its site.

Speaking of PayPal, the melodramatic headline on the front page of this month's Bank Technology News grabbed my attention (see upper-left corner of October issue here and inset):

Electronic Payments are a Knifefight.
PayPal's Bringing a Gun.

Evidently, there is at least one headline writer trying to make it logk like a major war is brewing between PayPal and the banking industry. Sure, they are a tough competitor, but they also facilitate a large number of profitable credit card transactions that directly benefit issuers. And I don't see how PayPal is any more of a threat now than they were last year, or the year before.

PayPal is not going away anytime soon. Rather than worrying about the "gun" the company is wielding, banks should be looking for ways to leverage the PayPal payments platform. For example, recent Facebook apps such as Geezeo's iWant (coverage here) or ChipIn (coverage here).

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PayPal Revives X.com Domain for its Lab Site

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 9, 2007
Categories: Epayments, JP Morgan Chase, PayPal

Last century, serial entrepreneur Elon Musk launched what he expected to be a top-10 bank by now. And in true late-1990s dot-com fashion, it was simply called X.com. In retrospect, maybe not the best name for a bank, but it certainly was more memorable than First Security Bank of Whatever. The company soon merged with PayPal, dropped the single-letter name, and eventually took over the world of alt-bank payments.

For most of the past eight years, if you typed X.com into your browser, you simply ended up on the PayPal homepage. But recently, PayPal has opened a new area under the X.com URL called PayPal Labs. This is a place where competitors, developers, analysts, and anyone with too much time on their hands can see the latest new "beta" services under development at PayPal.

With just two services listed (see below), it's no Google Lab, but it shows that PayPal still has Silicon Valley DNA at its core, despite five years working within the shadow of the larger eBay brand.

My take: More financial institutions should open "lab sites" to demonstrate their commitment to innovation. The only one I remember was JPMorgan's LabMorgan, which was really was part VC, part incubator. But its URL only shows an error message these days, a shame.

Update (10 Oct): A reader reminded me about Fidelity's lab site, fidelitylabs.com.

In the PayPal Lab

PayPal Request Money for Facebook (see previous coverage here)
MySpace Fundraising Badge

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Geezeo iWants Facebook Users

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 26, 2007
Categories: Epayments, Facebook, Geezeo, P2P Lending, PayPal, Personal Financial Management

I check Facebook about once or twice per week to see what new financial apps have been posted. So far the ones we've looked at include (see previous coverage here):

Lending Club's P2P marketplace
Prosper's Fantasy Banker
PayPal
Wesabe
Buxfer
TD Bank's Split It
Obopay's BillMonk

The latest entrant, iWant from online personal finance specialist Geezeo (see screenshot below). iWant is an application that allows Facebook users to share with friends their wants and needs, such as "buy an iPhone" or post more goal-oriented items such as, "pay off my student loans" or "throw a graduation party." And Geezeo ties it up nicely by tapping PayPal's API to facilitate "contributions" to the financial goals. It's also integrated into Geezeo's online personal finance application so users can track their goal progress in real time. ChipIn offers similar payment functionality in its Facebook app (previous coverage here).

I wonder if Geezeo will make a P2P lending play here? If Geezeo's software included a repayment option, the iWant "donors" could easily become iWant "lenders" and a whole new market might open up.

If you are attending our upcoming FINOVATE conference next week in New York, you'll be able to ask co-founders Peter Glyman and Shawn Ward yourself. We are fortunate to have not only Geezeo, but two other early Facebook innovators, Prosper and Lending Club on the DEMO stage. If you can't make the event, check our website in two weeks for full length videos of each DEMO.

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Finally, a Major U.S. Financial Services Company Not Named Wells Fargo is Blogging (PayPal)

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 4, 2007
Categories: Bank 2.0, Blogs, PayPal

Update: Quicken Loans has also published a recruiting blog for the past year (thanks Ann-Marie, see comments below and NetBanker post here).

I've been a big proponent of blogging. In my Online Banking Report on the subject published last fall (here), I predicted there would be 300 financial institution blogs by the end of this year. While there is no definitive listing, OpenSource CU's blogroll lists just 15 CU company blogs. Even if you add the CU employee blogs, MySpace pages, and four blogs from Wells Fargo, the grand total is less than 100 today, and unlikely to get much higher than that by year-end.

Why the slow start? Having worked inside several banks, I do not underestimate the difficulty in creating a new communication channel. And from what I've heard, many banks and credit unions just don't believe the benefits, which are largely intangible, will outweigh the costs. And with so few banks blogging, Wells Fargo being the only major in the U.S., it's hard to show examples to demonstrate the power of the blog.

That's why we were happy to see one of our favorite companies, eBay's PayPal unit, launch a blog a few weeks ago (here). As you can see it's not too fancy, and they post to it only a few times each week. But it really hits the mark, in my opinion.

Here's why:

1. Humanizes the organization: The initial posts are by various department heads or senior staff and discuss briefly what they do and a major initiative each is involved in. Each post has a small head shot in the upper left that increases the credibility of the posting (see screenshot below).

2. Educates in a more interesting way: PayPal managers are obviously excited about their projects as their enthusiasm comes across in the writing and makes the reader interested in the subject. For instance, last week CIO Michael Barrett posted seven paragraphs (here) on improving the safety of your online computing experience. It's a good way to get a simple message across, that users should use up-to-date operating systems and browsers. Usually, that advise is buried five layers deep in a security FAQ.

3. Sells with a more "consultative" approach: Several of the blog entries are designed to "sell" but again, when the head of consumer marketing blogs about the latest program, as Hillary Mickell did about PayPal's back-to-school shopping portal (here), it's much more believable than a banner ad slapped onto the homepage (see screenshot below).

4. Communicate during an outage or severe service problem: The most recent entries (here and here), both posted on the Sept. 2 holiday, informed and reassured customers about the problems with subscription services.

The challenge is generating readership. Would I subscribe to the blog if I was a consumer making an occasional PayPal purchase? Unlikely. But if I'm a merchant, and the PayPal system is an integral part of my livelihood, you can bet I'll pore over every word (note 1).

So, financial institutions, if you want to get into blogging, find the communities where you really make a difference and start speaking to them (see note 2).

Note:

1. The press and analysts will subscribe, spurring articles on your company such as this one.

2. Although perhaps just a shade too critical of the industry for my tastes (see the first comment for some balance), Verity Credit Union's latest post (here) speaks from the heart about the sub-prime lending fiasco and the CU's "Keep the Dream" fund to help at-risk borrowers keep their homes. Great post. Great program. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything on the website about it.

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PayPal Unveils New Homepage (beta)

By Jim Bruene Posted on August 9, 2007
Categories: PayPal, Website Usability & Design

PayPal is offering visitors the option of using a newly designed homepage, calling it a beta version. A small link notched into the top of the screen handily allows users to switch back to the original look.

The design change was needed. PayPal's homepage, which had been so good I often used it as an example of how to focus on user needs, became cluttered over the years. The company now uses "personal" and "business" tabs, a common banking convention that allows the very different constituencies to more easily find what they need.

The new homepage (below) is dominated by a safety theme, with a large blurred image of a credit card number meant to reinforce its point of being a "safer, easier way to pay without exposing your credit card number." It's a good idea, but the huge blurred image makes me feel like I'm having eye trouble.

PayPal has also pulled the credit card logos out of the main graphic and put them on their own line. They are easier to see now and will help new users understand they can use PayPal with their existing payment cards.

They also made two subtle changes in the login area:

Changed the wording from "member login" to "account login," a more accepted phrase. Most people don't really feel a membership bond from their payment device, and it probably confused a few infrequent users.
Added "PayPal" in front of "password," again to make it more obvious to novice users as to what to enter here.

Finally, PayPal finally added a search box (top right), ending its reign as one of the last major holdouts for this common website utility.

Overall, it's a great improvement. And should help with navigation, sales, and support. Given its position as one of the busiest financial destinations on the Internet, we recommend taking a look and comparing it to your own website design.

For more info on financial institution homepage design, see our Online Banking Report on the subject here.

New PayPal homepage (beta)

Current PayPal homepage

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PayPal Really Launches on Facebook

By Jim Bruene Posted on July 9, 2007
Categories: Epayments, Facebook, PayPal

Two weeks ago I heard from PayPal corp communications who felt that my “PayPal launches on Facebook” title was misleading. They had a point. As I explained in the post, the new Facebook app was PayPal-powered but developed by Australia’s Yellow Media. The title could have been better.

However, that’s moot now since PayPal has now launched its own app on Facebook (here). It appears to have been posted on July 3 and has 218 users as of this morning. The application provides a simple interface to request and track money requests from Facebook friends (see inset above). Additional functionality is said to be on the way.

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ChipIn, Another PayPal-powered Application Launches on Facebook

By Jim Bruene Posted on July 9, 2007
Categories: ChipIn, Facebook, PayPal

Watching the explosion of content, and users, at Facebook, may be the most interesting thing we've seen since the rise of the commercial Web in 1995/1996. Marc Andreessen, not know for hyperbole, had this to say in a lengthy blog posting (here) that should be required reading for all content providers, including banks and credit unions:

(Facebook Platform) is an amazing achievement — one of the most significant milestones in the technology industry in this decade.

Every time we head over to the Facebook application directory, there's an interesting new financial app. Friday we found ChipIn, a nifty little widget that allows users to post a badge on their Facebook page or website that allows users to contribute money for a certain event or cause. It can be a charitable event such as Vancity's Bike Share program or a private event such as pooling funds for someone's birthday party. ChipIn is the second developer to launch on Facebook using PayPal's engine. The first was PayMe (see our coverage here).

ChipIn <chipin.com> is a Honolulu-based firm formed in mid-2005 with seed funding from CommerceNet. The company emerged from stealth mode in Feb. 2006 and launched its service on the Web in November 2006. The Facebook app launched June 24 and has 415 downloads as of 9 AM this morning, impressive growth compared to the 134 it had on Friday.

Initially, ChipIn was a full-service payments company, actually holding and managing the funds for users. However, after a few months of those headaches, it outsourced all payments-related functions to PayPal. Check out the Chipin blog for the full company history.

How it Works
ChipIn uses the PayPal engine to do the heavy lifting similar to PayMe that we wrote about two weeks ago (here) (see note 1). To create a ChipIn badge on Facebook, users select a Facebook event (created separately within the social network), set the fundraising goal, then customize the text and colors of the widget.

In our test, we created a ChipIn badge with the goal of raising $100 to donate to Vancity's Bike Share program (see screenshot #1 below). Although, we were able to successfully install the widget on our Netbanker Facebook page (see screenshot #3 below), we had trouble with the customization. Every time we moved from the customization step to installation, our changes were lost (note 2).

To use the widget, visitors click on the "chip in" button to launch a PayPal window. Users choose an amount to pay, then login to PayPal, to complete the transaction. A progress bar on the Chipin widget shows the progress towards the fundraising goal.

With a single click the badge can be placed within an individual's Facebook page (see screenshot #2 below). ChipIn also provides cut-and-paste code to load the badge on any blog or website. ChipIn badges can also be built directly through its website without the need for a Facebook account.

Financial Institution Opportunities
PayMe and Chipin are cool little apps that can and should be sponsored by banks, credit unions, or card issuers. Although the PayPal brand name makes Chipin relatively trustworthy, a widely recognized financial brand would be even better. At this point, ChipIn is still a tiny, relatively unknown company. If I were at a major bank, I'd write them a $50,000 check and have them rename their Facebook app, "Chipin by YourBank," instantly becoming the first bank with an official Facebook app. The company will also build white label versions you could provide to customers for use outside Facebook.

For more on how to use social networking in financial services, see our Online Banking Report on Social Personal Finance.

Screenshots

1. Simple ChipIn Widget Creation
Using an existing Facebook account and an existing Facebook event, in this case Vancity's Bike Share (thanks to William Azaroff), a new widget can be created and posted to your Facebook profile in about a minute.

2. Facebook Promotion
Once the badge has been created, the Facebook integration provides simple ways to promote the cause. You can invite up to 10 friends each day, post it on your Facebook profile, or cut and paste the code onto your own website or blog. But the key to viral growth is the Facebook mini-feed which automatically notifies all your friends about any Facebook activities, including the addition of the Chipin badge to your profile.

Posted on the NetBanker Facebook Page
Here's how the ChipIn badge looks on my Facebook profile page (here). Note, you'll need to be logged in to Facebook to view.

Notes:

1. PayPal is not the developer of Chipin, nor do they have any financial interest in the company. Chipin is an independent developer using PayPal APIs.

2. Tests conducted on July 5 using Firefox 2.0.

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PayPal Launches on Facebook: Who Wants to be the First Bank?

By Jim Bruene Posted on June 22, 2007
Categories: Facebook, Lending Club, MySpace, PayPal, Personal Financial Management, Social Networks

The social networking phenomena has entered a new phase: eCommerce. It has always been a bit hard to visualize mainstream businesses, like banks, book sellers, or phone companies making a profit on MySpace. It's been a great place for musicians and online dating companies to grab market share, but a MySpace Checking Account didn't seem just around the corner (see MySpace coverage here).

All that changed May 24, when Facebook opened its network to outside developers, making its service more like Windows than MySpace. Already the service has grown by 3 million users, more than 10%, in the past 4 week, to 27 million (see Facebook profile in today's Wall Street Journal).

More interesting are the 893 new services have opened their doors on the platform. The most popular, Top Friends by Slide, already has 6.4 million users. Yes, that is no typo, in one month a Facebook service grew to more than 6 million users. With traditional marketing, it would have cost a bank or card company as much as $1 billion to attract that many customers assuming acquisition costs of $100 to $150 per new account.

And it's not just the one app. A new Seattle-based music preference service, iLike, has added 3.8 million. There's not a whole lot happening in commerce apps YET, the first financial company with a service offering, Lending Club (see previous coverage here), is the most popular business app, with just under 10,000 users. That's about what iLike attracts in a busy hour, but for a financial services company, and especially a startup, that's huge, a grand slam using tired baseball metaphors.

For many reasons, it takes longer for traditional companies to pounce on new opportunities. But over the summer we'll start seeing hundreds of businesses launch on Facebook. By next year at this time, the Facebook apps directory will probably look like the New York City Yellow Pages (or at least San Jose).

Financial Institution Opportunities

Searching the site, we only see four financial services that have launched on Facebook:

Lending Club's person-to-person loan marketplace
Prosper's lending game
Wesabe's personal finance groups
Pay Me, a payment service developed by Australian Ad Agency, Yellow Media using the PayPal engine (screenshot below, we'll provide more details once we finish testing it)

But so far there is no:

Bank
Credit union
Credit card issuer
Mortgage lender
Brokerage (although there are several stock monitoring service including Forbes, Yahoo, and Social Picks)
Rates tracking service
Credit report monitoring service (though Identity Guard is advertising heavily today)
Identity theft protection service

Let the race begin. But you better move faster than you've ever moved before, if you want to get the huge first-mover advantage on the Facebook platform. Good luck.

For more information, see our latest Online Banking Report, Social Personal Finance.

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