PayPal lures Android developers hunting for dollars

Online payment giant PayPal announces two developer tools that may soon get you using PayPal to purchase more goods on your Android phone.

Jessica Dolcourt Senior Director, Commerce & Content Operations

Jessica Dolcourt is a passionate content strategist and veteran leader of CNET coverage. As Senior Director of Commerce & Content Operations, she leads a number of teams, including Commerce, How-To and Performance Optimization. Her CNET career began in 2006, testing desktop and mobile software for Download.com and CNET, including the first iPhone and Android apps and operating systems. She continued to review, report on and write a wide range of commentary and analysis on all things phones, with an emphasis on iPhone and Samsung. Jessica was one of the first people in the world to test, review and report on foldable phones and 5G wireless speeds. Jessica began leading CNET's How-To section for tips and FAQs in 2019, guiding coverage of topics ranging from personal finance to phones and home. She holds an MA with Distinction from the University of Warwick (UK).

Expertise Content strategy, team leadership, audience engagement, iPhone, Samsung, Android, iOS, tips and FAQs.

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Jessica Dolcourt

May 19, 2010 8:30 a.m. PT

For the next two days, Google geekdom will gather at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, bringing with them an opportunity for publishers to spread their products' influence by getting developers on board--and maybe line their own corporate pockets in the process.

Take PayPal, for instance. At the conference opening on Wednesday, the online payment giant announced a developer tool for Android called the Mobile Payments Library, which allows application-authors to add PayPal-powered checkout to apps that sell goods or services, or collect donations.

The tool offers to track and secure customers' financial details, which could help keep smaller-fry developers from seeking other solutions for combating payment fraud online.

PayPal makes out in the deal, too. Developers will dish up 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent of the sale, plus 30 cents based on PayPal's tiered pricing structure for e-commerce, or a 5 percent plus 5 cents per each transaction fee for micropayments.

PayPal's Mobile Payments Library is already in effect for iPhone; here's more information on how it works.

Meanwhile, PayPal is also releasing a toolkit, called X Toolkit for Google App Engine (GAE), that will help developers using the GAE platform manage PayPal payments in their apps.

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