Subway sandwich shops are going to be the first major battlegrounds on which PayPal starts to push into in-person mPayments in the US. The companies are working together to enable PayPal’s OneTouch checkout system on the Subway mobile app.
That means that Subway customers will be able to order their food in advance, and then pay with their smartphones at the counter. The system is being developed by Paydiant, a company acquired by PayPal this past spring, and which was, notably, the main developer working on MCX’s CurrentC mPayment platform backed by several major retailers hoping to attack the credit card companies that dominate the retail transactions market. Here again the PayPal division finds itself working on a platform that will compete directly against Apple Pay, which is already available along with Android Pay as a payment option on the Subway mobile app.
This is just the beginning of a major push for PayPal, though. In a TechCrunch article, a Paydiant official is quoted as suggesting that many more such OneTouch mobile app integrations are in the works, with Subway being “the most prominent initial launch partner for all that.” PayPal hasn’t been subtle in hinting that it’s angling for a major slice of the mPayment pie now that it’s operating as an independent company, and its foray into US merchants’ mobile apps is the clearest indication yet that it plans to be a serious competitor.
Source: TechCrunch
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