PayPal Holdings Inc is launching a platform that will enable customers with domestic digital wallets to easily transact with businesses globally, as the payments giant seeks to capture a bigger chunk of the international market.
The company’s PayPal World platform will allow “interoperability” between the local digital wallets and PayPal, according to a statement. Its initial partners on the platform include MercadoLibre’s Mercado Pago, National Payments Corporation of India’s UPI and Tencent Holdings’ Tenpay Global, meaning customers with those wallets will be able to send money internationally or shop overseas by clicking on the PayPal button without needing to set up a PayPal account from scratch.
“There has never been an interoperable global network that connects wallets together until now,” PayPal Chief Executive Officer Alex Chriss said in an interview. “If you’re a small wallet in a small geography in the world, you can now integrate with PayPal World.”
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Merchants that use PayPal will also be able to accept payments from those wallets without having to invest in new technology to integrate with the various providers. The platform will go live later this year. The aim is for the platform to also add additional partner wallets in the future, according to the statement.
PayPal cited an example of a consumer in India wanting to buy sneakers from a US-based online store. Instead of having to set up a PayPal account, that person can click on the PayPal button and easily connect with their already-established UPI account.
This product is part of PayPal’s recent push to ramp up innovation. Last month, the company announced a new credit card and said earlier this year that it was planning to integrate its stablecoin into more of its products. The company also plans to add AI and stablecoin use cases to the digital wallet platform at some point.
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“The challenge of moving money across borders is incredibly complex, and yet this platform will make it so simple for nearly two billion consumers and businesses,” Chriss said in the statement.