TECHNOLOGY
PEER-TO-PEER PAYMENT IS an ever-growing and developing industry , and one of the most popular companies enabling this is PayPal .
PayPal was formed in 1998 ( named Confinity at the time ), and has become the go-to for businesses and individuals alike as a simpler way to pay and be paid . Just four years after its inception , PayPal became a wholly-owned subsidiary of eBay , and in 2014 – a landmark year for the company – it generated 44 percent of eBay ’ s total profits . In 2015 , eBay made PayPal an independent company again , and it was valued that year at $ 46.6 billion .
Also in 2015 , PayPal saw a 42 percent increase in P2P volume on the previous year worldwide ; with the service being used increasingly on mobile devices , it was only natural for the next step to integrate PayPal even further and allow an extra shortcut towards making payments .
According to the company ’ s research , Canadians alone average $ 462 in unpaid IOUs from friends and family , but PayPal ’ s integration with Apple ’ s intelligent personal assistant , Siri , could end the discomfort of owing and being owed cash .
All users require is the PayPal app and iOS 10 or above . It ’ s as simple as saying “ Siri , pay Nell $ 15 for breakfast ”. Siri communicates with PayPal , and PayPal does the rest . If for whatever bizarre reason you have more than one contact named Nell , Siri will clarify which one you mean first .
The Siri integration has now worked its way to 30 countries and even more languages , and according to Meron Colbeci , Senior Director of Core Consumer Products at PayPal , it was the result of a long and fruitful relationship between PayPal and Apple .
“ We ’ ve enjoyed a long partnership ,” he explains . “ We currently work with Apple to help people make purchases on Apple . com and iTunes , provide innovative financing options in the UK , allow people to send and request money on Venmo with Siri and iMessage on iOS 10 , and allow merchants
18 March 2017