The massive online payments company may be responding to pressure from other processors.
PayPal has just announced that it is updating its various tools for developers with the release of a new mcommerce SDK with easier code that allows for integration as a mobile payment method.
This is meant to make it easier for developers to be able to work with PayPal as a payment method.
It has been speculated that this action by PayPal could be a response to pressure that the company is feeling from other processors, such as Stripe and Braintree, which are known to be much more friendly for developers. According to the CTO of PayPal, James Barrese, “Back in 2009, PayPal was the first financial company to open up its payments APIs for developers around the world. However, our tools haven’t kept up with the bleeding edge of innovation that the industry expects of us.”
The new mcommerce developer tools were announced as an element of the SXSW participation by PayPal.
Among the mcommerce tools that developers now have available to them from PayPal include:
• Mobile SDK – this is a software development kit that will make it possible for developers to achieve PayPal integration as a mobile payment method without requiring the user to have to leave the mcommerce app to complete the transaction. Furthermore, customers will be able to use card.io, which is PayPal acquired technology that allows a credit card to be scanned in order to make a payment. The SDK is being released for iOS first, but other platforms will be soon to follow.
• PayPal button in JavaScript – adding the feature that allows a customer to pay using PayPal is now a matter of adding five code lines to a QR code, shopping cart, or website.
• Tokenizing credit cards – the new developer APIs will allow for credit cards to be tokenized so that data can be handled with increased mobile security. PCI compliance issues are also limited in this way.
• Developer website – a new PayPal website designed specifically for developers and which consolidates like a documentation, sandbox, and resources in one, has been created.
Barrese explained that developers needed better mcommerce capabilities and “we listened”.
