EBay Inc’s PayPal business is in talks to add its payment service to Google Inc’s Android smartphone software, making it easier for users to pay for applications, three people familiar with the matter said.
Users of Android phones, such as Motorola Inc’s Droid X and HTC Corp’s (宏達電) Droid Incredible, may be able to pay for apps with PayPal as soon as this year, said the people, who declined to be named because the discussions aren’t public. Customers currently pay via credit card and Google’s Checkout service.
By adding PayPal, Google would give app developers another way to get paid, potentially making them more likely to create software for Android. While Android phones are beginning to outsell the iPhone, Apple Inc still dominates in apps. There are more than 225,000 apps available for Apple devices, compared with about 70,000 for Android.
Apple iTunes users can buy apps with one touch because their payment information is already stored. Google offers similar features through its Checkout service, though it isn’t as popular as iTunes or PayPal, creating hassles for new users. By adopting PayPal, which has 87 million active accounts, Google may attract more paying customers.
“It’s clear that PayPal has been making huge strides in mobile,” said Maribel Lopez, founder of San Francisco-based Lopez Research, which tracks the mobile industry. “From Google’s perspective, they just haven’t won the war on this. Why bother fighting it?”
Anuj Nayar, a PayPal spokesman, and Google spokeswoman Shari Yoder Doherty declined to comment.
The talks between the companies continue and may not lead to a deal, the people familiar with the discussions said.
PayPal added 1 million new accounts each month last quarter and made up 37 percent of EBay’s sales. Net revenue at PayPal rose 22 percent to US$817 million in the period.
Shares in EBay, based in San Jose, California, fell US$0.09 to US$21.50 at 4pm New York time. Shares of Google, located in Mountain View, California, dropped US$5.66 to US$486.35.
Android has become the most popular smartphone software in the US, overtaking the iPhone and BlackBerry, research firm Gartner Inc said on Thursday. Worldwide, Android ranks third, behind Nokia Oyj’s Symbian and the BlackBerry, according to Gartner. Apple is in fourth place.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six