It is currently estimated that PayPal mobile payments will generate a volume of $3 billion in 2011, which is twice what was forecasted in the last quarter of 2010, and has increased significantly from the $2 billion prediction from April, 2011.
Paypal has explained that its current mobile payment volume is a total of $10 billion, which is a jump from the figure seen in March, which was a daily $6 billion.
This tremendous spike in volume indicates that PayPal has discovered a successful path for allowing for mobile device-based online payments, which is a broadening of its established business. However, PayPal’s main future challenge has yet to be addressed. This struggle relates to its future direction, which is accepting the payments in order to purchase goods offline.
Being able to use PayPal by way of mobile devices in order to make payments in the real world offers an opportunity for growth in over 90 percent of the transactions made today. While the majority of its business remains online, PayPal is setting its sights on the offline world of transactions.
There are two kinds of mobile payments currently available through PayPal. These are payments made person-to-person and mobile commerce payments, which involve the purchase of goods by way of a mobile device.
In the case of the first option, PayPal only makes money if the user sends funds by way of a credit or debit account, as it collects a percentage of that amount. In the second case, a percentage fee is applied to all goods sold online when the purchase was made using a mobile device.
