Apple Adds PayPal to iTunes, Siri & App Store, Android Pay in India?
It looks as if Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) are finally burying the hatchet. Users will now be to pay for purchases at the App Store, iTunes, iBooks and Apple Music with PayPal.
A PayPal payment option will be available on those services in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Mexico and undisclosed parts of Europe, The Los Angeles Times reported. Siri users will also be able to pay with PayPal via One Touch and an Apple ID.
Although there is no indication that PayPal will support Apple Pay. Apple is likely to add PayPal to Apple Pay in the near future because Android Pay is supported by PayPal.
Why Apple Needs PayPal
Apple desperately needs PayPal because America’s most popular digital wallet had 203 million accounts nationwide in first quarter 2017, Statista reported. That number was up from 197 million accounts at the end of 2016, and 184 million accounts in first quarter 2016.
This makes PayPal one of the world’s largest and fastest growing financial institutions. It also PayPal the gold standard in Silicon Valley Fintech and the leader in the payments sphere.
The next big step will be to add Ant Financial’s Alipay to Apple Pay. Alipay reportedly had 400 million users on February 25, 2017, and 100 million daily users on December 2, 2016, Extended Ramblings reported. Adding Alipay to Apple Pay would be a good way to get Chinese and Chinese visitors to the United States to use the app. Since Alipay is now available in the US such a move is likely.
It’ll be interesting to see if adding PayPal will convince big US retailers like Walmart, Kroger and Amazon to start accepting Apple Pay. So far the giants have said no the App and Android Pay.
Is Android Pay Coming to India?
Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) is negotiating with the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) to bring Android Pay to the subcontinent.
The NPCI has asked the Reserve Bank of India (the nation’s central bank) to give Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) permission to operate Android Pay in the country, Inc. 42, reported. The company formerly known as Google wants to integrate Android Pay with NPCI’s Universal Payment Interface (UPI).
Adding India would be a huge coup for Android Pay, because Apple Pay is not yet available on the subcontinent. It would also benefit PayPal which is not widely used in India.
Several other tech giants want to enter the India payment market as well. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Uber and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) are also negotiating deals to work with UPI. Facebook in particular would be highly disruptive because it owns WhatsApp, which had 200 million active users in India in February 2017, according to Mashable. Since India is WhatsApp’s biggest market that would be a game changer for the App.
