PayPal Here has landed in Europe to add a new tangent to e-commerce payments. The firm has launched a chip-and-pin credit card reader for the small business owners in U.K, a first in terms of its geographical expansion outside the U.S.

The device, based on the Chip and Pin technology is likely to hit the European markets latest by this summer according to PayPal's VP for global products, Hill Ferguson.

Paypal Here was introduced in March 201, specifically for a U.S-based audience- like small businesses owners, cab drivers, interior designers etc. But Ferguson comments that now "We’re bringing PayPal Here to market in countries where swiping is not the norm" .

Its successful stint in the U.S, where it saw a whopping $145 billion increase in payment through this service, has allowed it to expand into the next best global market space. The device will first be launched in among U.K small business community on an experimental basis and later extended to the mainland countries.


Paypal spokesperson explains that they chose U.K to launch their mobile payments venture as it has a replenishable customer base of 18 million. Besides being the second-largest market outside U.S, it boasts off as the higrest smartphone centred zone in whole of Europe.

In fact, this just might be a homecoming move for David Marcus, Paypal's President who started off his career in France with a mobile carrier billing startup Zong. He knows his base well.

Small businesses are the energy house of every economy and by extending them a basic service like this will boost the economy as well as create a loyal customer base for the firm.

Coming onto the technicalities, that often get brushed under the carpet, Paypal's latest device is modelled on bluetooth technology and syncs well with iPad. The users need to download the relevant app and simply insert their credit card with the PIN number to make transactions. The information is in encrypted version so it takes care of customer's data privacy.

The transaction fees, nominal by most standards, is likely to be under 3% wit no contractual bindings as of now. However the Paypal establishemnt has refused to comment or reveal its actual statistics about mobile card reader users in the U.S market currently.

This is a major move by the California-based firm to compete with other competing firms in this field like Square, Intuit besides a small pool of startups like American Express backed iZettle, SumUp, mPowa to name a few.

Paypal too is following in the footsteps of other firms who are invested in the idea of a chip-n-pin device. To enable the customers use these devices, Paypal is set to produce autonomous chip-n-pin device for personal identification for card holders. Since the wireless technology is already set in place the functioning should be glitch-free.

As a bottomline, it is clear that the U.K is a viable market to test drive its venture. Ferguson anticipates that "It’s a more complicated product because the hardware has to be accredited and certified by banks and regulatory agencies. But the value proposition is the same. We’re helping small businesses sell more stuff".

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