French city goes contactless

Digital security company Gemalto, Cr'edit Mutuel, and French mobile operator NRJ Mobile have teamed up on what they claim is Europe's first commercial roll-out of contactless mobile payments services, in Nice, France, states Finextra.

The partnership is part of a wider, government-backed initiative by banks, telcos, transport operators and retailers called 'Nice, mobile contactless city'.

The project will enable people in Nice to use their NFC-enabled mobile phones to pay at restaurants, supermarkets and local stores, as well as in the city's transport networks. Information services will also be available at museums and university campuses.

PayPal's VP of platform, mobile and new ventures, Osama Bedier, revealed in a blog that the company's mobile payments library is available to Android developers, according to Mobile Entertainment News.

This comes barely a month after PayPal announced the open beta of its payment library for the iPhone.

The news marks a further acceleration of PayPal's commitment to mobile after many previous false dawns. In April, the firm announced 1 million downloads of its iPhone app.

2Checkout.com, a global e-commerce platform, has added PayPal as an additional payment method, writes Ecommwire.

2Checkout's recurring billing service is the company's most popular and widely used feature, with consumer feedback requesting the integration of PayPal into its billing feature.

“Previously, consumers purchasing products and services through 2Checkout's recurring billing service were limited to using credit cards. Now, with the addition of PayPal, we expect an even larger increase in the service's popularity,” says Chris Daly, 2Checkout.com's chief marketing officer.