James Delahunty
12 Dec 2004 7:59
eBay's payment system, PayPal, can now be used by iTunes customers to purchase music downloads in the United States. Other music download services are already accepting PayPal payments for music downloads but the deal with the market-leading iTunes is seen as important. "This is a big win for our off-eBay business," PayPal's spokeswoman Sara Bettencourt said. PayPal gets 70% of business from eBay but continues to win new deals with more firms. In some cases, some online businesses only accept PayPal payments.
PayPal profits from taking a small percentage of a transaction is performs. It currently has around 56,000,000 registered users worldwide. PayPal sales reached $166m between July and September, a 56% increase on the same period in 2003. The service was acquired by online auction giant eBay in 2002. Since then it has received a lot of success but also has had its hiccups, including service failures in October following a software upgrade and accusations of overstating the level of protection it offered in the event of non-arrival of goods.
Source:
BBC News