PayPal for iPhone Now Bumps!
PayPal first launched their free app back in 2008 and since then they have slowly improved their features, on Monday they released a huge update to their already popular application. PayPal have now joined forces with Bump another already popular app, to enable users to send payments by ‘bumping’ into each other.
How bump works is you decide what you want to send to a friend, for example a photo, you both need the Bump app and you just Bump from one app to the other the photo you chose. Now though you can also do this with payments through your PayPal account. So theres no excuse for not getting your buddy to give you their share of the drinks! All it requires to do this is an internet connection whether it be 3G, Edge or wifi and that both parties have the PayPal app.
PayPal have been improving and trying to grow the revenue from this app since launch and the Wall Street Journal reported,
For PayPal, the new app is part of a long-term effort to bring its online payments–which started out as a way to pay on eBay–into the mobile world. PayPal first launched mobile payments through SMS and a voice response system in 2006, and launched an initial version of its iPhone app in 2008, followed since by apps for Android and Blackberry.
In 2008, PayPal’s mobile apps completed 24 million transactions; in 2009, that leapt to 140 million. Eric Duprat, PayPal’s general manager of mobile says the market is only set to grow, but he wouldn’t predict by exactly how much.
With this new feature I’m sure these figures will increase. Along with the new Bump addition there other new features that will be welcomed by users, there is now an integrated bill splitter and tip calculator. You can also set reminders via the app to alert you when you need to make any recurring payments for upcoming bills.
Wall Street Journal goes on to report, that PayPal (iPhone app) are hoping that this way of making payments will become more popular and that more and more people will use it in their everyday life. For example to pay their rent, getting friends to pay them back any borrowed money and students can quite easily get their parents to pass them more money. There is no fee to do these Bump payments if the customer has their regular bank account linked with PayPal. If they don’t then there will be a fee for taking the money from their credit card but with this new update Paypal will ensure they are up front with the fees and how much they are.
I think this is great new addition to PayPal and no doubt welcomed business for Bump as well, who according to TechCrunch are still a young start up.
What do you think of these new features? Will you be using them?
