PayPal plans to open an online application store and has opened its payment platform

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According to foreign media reports, PayPal, a payment platform under eBay, will open an online application store this year, through which developers can publish applications. This is also the latest move in PayPal's diversification strategy.

POsama Bedier, vice president of platform business and emerging technologies at ayPal, said at the "Future of Web Apps" (FOWA) conference that developers can develop applications that PayPal does not have the interest or resources to develop on its own.

Last year, eBay transformed its Selling Manager tool into an app store for external applications. The app store plan is the latest step in PayPal's strategy to attract external developers. PayPal opened its payment platform late last year.

"We take communication with developers very seriously," Bedil said in an interview. "They are our customers, just like consumers and merchants. We want to help developers succeed, and we have to think about what they think. We hope that when developers hear the word 'payments', they will think of PayPal first. We are working towards this goal, and we will achieve this goal through innovation and listening to developer feedback."

In the past, PayPal has been content to let developers provide connections to its payment system on external websites to achieve payment functions, but recently it believes that this is not enough. Bedil said that e-commerce only accounts for about 4% of retail sales in the United States. PayPal hopes to enter other areas outside of traditional e-commerce. Smartphones allow PayPal's payment system to enter grocery stores, laundromats, gas stations, as well as areas such as item rentals and parking. Bedil said, "Getting rid of the shackles of traditional e-commerce will bring us huge business opportunities."

PayPal is testing the Mobile Payments library, which is designed to allow developers to add payment functionality to iPhone apps. The library will be expanded to other smartphone platforms.

During Bedil's speech at FOWA, another PayPal executive demonstrated adding a PayPal button to a Flickr account to allow users to purchase photo printing services. Bedil said, "We want to provide the simplest way to pay with a mobile phone. We want developers to be able to add payment functionality to their applications in just a few lines of code and a few minutes."

As mobile payment transactions on its platform are growing rapidly, PayPal believes that it is "very urgent" to allow developers to provide payment functions in mobile applications. Competitors including Google, Amazon, credit card companies and mobile operators are not standing still and have also seen business opportunities in online payments.