ORLANDO, FL – A PayPal executive said that mobile payments are growing exponentially and provided his own company’s figures as proof during the keynote at International CTIA Wireless 2011’s Money Over Mobile pre-conference program.

PayPal’s mobile payment transaction volume has grown from $24 million in 2008 to $140 million in 2009 to $750 million last year. It is projected to top $2 billion this year and is expected to reach $7.5 billion in 2013.

“Mobile payments are experiencing exponential growth,” said Fabio Sisinni, director of product management at PayPal Mobile, Palo Alto, CA. “We are doing more than $6 million per day in mobile transactions and we’re on track to exceed $2 billion this year.

“We will top $7.5 billion in 2013 based on the growth we’re seeing,” he said. “A mobile wallet in the cloud is not so distant based on our numbers.

“Last year ecommerce in North America was around $170 billion, but physical commerce influenced by online was more than $1 trillion, and more of that is being driven through mobile.”

PayPal, an eBay Inc. company, claims that it has 94 million active accounts and 9 million merchants operating in more than 190 markets. It supports 25 currencies.

Its overall payment volume exceeded $92 billion in 2010, which represented 28 percent growth year-over-year, and 61 percent of eBay’s overall volume.

Mobile payment boom
More and more Internet companies are driving the development of the mobile industry, per PayPal.

As an Internet company, PayPal sees a huge opportunity as the world enters the era of connected consumers, with more than 10 billion connected devices projected by 2020.

“We’re making mobile the main part of the business, because the most common way to access the Internet in the near future will be using connected devices such as smartphones and tablets,” Mr. Sisinni said. “Our vision is a wallet in the cloud that consumers can access anywhere, anytime.

“Connected devices could range from a POS device, a TV, a fridge—it could be a billboard or a parking meter,” he said. “We envision a wallet in the cloud giving consumers the freedom to choose from various methods of payment and also earn loyalty points and rewards.”

In addition to launching its own applications and powering mobile payments for parent eBay’s mobile site and apps, PayPal also partnered with Research In Motion for BlackBerry App World.

Last year, PayPal launched its Mobile Express Checkout product for merchants, which can integrate with a mobile platform enable mobile payments.

“It integrates easily with online accounts, so if you have already integrated Express Checkout online, then we automatically take care of the optimization for mobile devices,” Mr. Sisinni said.

PayPal Mobile is used by merchants such as Starbucks, Footlocker and Overstock.com.

Mr. Sisinni said that almost every merchant that integrates Mobile Express Checkout is seeing a double-digit sales lift.

“With eBay truly being an option-based business, the fact that you have this device always with you, it allows you to bid more and increase the velocity of transactions,” Mr. Sisinni said. “We’re also seeing this with deal-of-the-day companies like Groupon—you want to immediately respond over your phone so you don’t miss out, and it is seeing tremendous growth.

“The biggest trend is taking offline purchases online and enabling mobile purchases,” he said. “Mobile technology can drive traffic to stores and bring consumers to merchants who offer deals online and enable redemption at POS.

“A lot of big retailers are waking up and trying to take advantage of the multichannel opportunity by combining a best-in-class in-store experience where you can touch and feel and try out the goods, with the best of the online world, unlimited inventory selection and price comparisons, and you can get it shipped to your door.”

Mr. Sisinni

Kate Kingberger, director of wireless Internet development at CTIA – The Wireless Association, Washington

Final Take
PayPal’s Mr. Sisinni