Former PayPal CEO Bill Harris says that the company is offering something distinct in its growing rivalry against mPayment systems from Apple and Google.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, Harris says that unlike Google Wallet and Apple Pay, which are “delivery mechanisms” for payment cards like Visa and MasterCard credit cards, PayPal “is essentially a substitute for a card”. That could be seen as a strong advantage, but Harris is also emphatic that PayPal is “playing catch-up” against players already in the mPayment space, and that the company is going to face “huge challenges” as it seeks to compete while striking out on its own from parent company eBay.
That analysis seems pretty apt. A recent survey indicated that PayPal has been losing ground to Apple Pay as the latter has become more prominent and popular to consumers; but another, more recent survey showed that PayPal enjoys strong brand recognition in the mobile payment space, given its history as an online payment provider.
It’s anybody’s guess how this will all play out going forward, of course – especially as other mPayment services from the likes of Google and Samsung enter the mix – but PayPal is certainly a company to watch as the mPayment market expands.
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