PayPal To Open App Store For Developers

angry tapir writes "PayPal will open an applications store this year where developers can offer their wares, the latest step in the company's multi-pronged strategy to deepen its relationship with external programmers. Developers have a big opportunity to offer applications for merchants and consumers that PayPal doesn't have the interest or resources to build itself, according to a PayPal official."

Hostess to Open App Store for Developers

[Culture20]

"Hostess Brands, Inc., the largest wholesale baker and distributor of fresh bakery products in the United States, will open an applications store this year where developers can offer their wares, the latest step in the company's multi-pronged strategy to deepen its relationship with external programmers. Developers have a big opportunity to offer applications for merchants and consumers that Hostess doesn't have the interest or resources to build itself, according to a Hostess official."

The above makes as much sense as the summary and article. Paypal? Software?

Are there any

[Anonymous Coward]

Are there any developers that actually trust paypal?

Seems like a bad idea.... for developers.

[blankinthefill]

If I were a developer, I wouldn't touch this with a 10 foot pole. Paypal wants to pull more shit with people's accounts? Well, just declare that the app is a 'rogue app' or something. Then they get to play their little games, and THEY probably don't get the bad PR for it.

The Apps

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure there will be PayPal apps that will:

• Tally the interest you could have earned on the funds that PP arbitrarily frozen in your account
• Count bogus threats PP gives you about suing
• Count the number of times PP "customer service" gives you the runaround.
• Gives you message boxes telling you that your issues are really eBay's problem and not PayPals (even thought they're the same company)
• Little pop-ups that say "You got screwed!" in the AOL "you got mail" voice.
• The Customer Service app that hands out random bullshit "help" - actually this ends up better than they're real "support"

Of course the app I'd want is the automated complaint filer that automatically files complaints to : BBB.org, FTC.gov, My attorney general's office, ripoffreport.com, and epinions.com whenever PP screws me over.

Try becoming a proper company first

[meist3r]

From my experience with Paypal this will be an outright desaster for many people. You can't get a hold of any human being through their shit telephone system. There is nothing except pre-fab email replies. They lock accounts for no apparent reason and refuse to explain themselves. They steal money from their account holders by blocking accounts and not creating opportunities to dispute that. They've stolen money from foobar http://www.foobar2000.org/ [foobar2000.org], the Xorg Foundation http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.freedesktop.xorg/42548 [gmane.org] and as we all clearly see Wikileaks http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100124/1846137886.shtml [techdirt.com]

Paypal is a lame excuse of an idea that went right of the window. They try to act like a bank but don't take the responsibility that comes with it. They screw several countries out of taxes because they're situated in Liechtenstein (at least for Europe) which doesn't pay anything. They provide the service of adding another layer of menu forms to a credit card purchase. They don't provide actual added value to most resellers and are currently used as an extortion tool for Ebay customers. On top of that they are a major target for phishing and skimming attacks, cross site scripting and abuse.

Who in their right mind would do business with them? Oh I forgot you have to. In case you've wondered I've had my share of problems w/ Paypal. They refused to let me balance my PP account from my bank because they are too fucking stupid to get a non-automated verification system for new bank accounts. So while my account was in transfer because of a merger they send the "verfication" (a ridiculous transfer of random cent values) to the wrong sort code and subsequently refused to correct their mistake or let me (who had done nothing but provide them with updated proper bank data) verify the account any other way. In short: Paypal sucks, I've closed my account there and won't be coming back. Ever.

If that is the kind of servce they provide to their paying customers imagine how brilliantly developers will find working w/ them.

Re:Hostess to Open App Store for Developers

[somersault]

You have things completely the wrong way round.. the only things this will do is provide a content delivery system for exchanging apps for money.

I think it's a great idea. Having to register, design and build my own website, link up to some online payment service and write my own content delivery system has always made the idea of writing a commercial app seem a bit of a pain in the ass to me (I know I could do it, but I can't be bothered) - but with this kind of service available it takes a lot of hassle out of things. Now whenever I think about writing a commercial application, I will be slightly more inclined to actually do so as I know that the distribution would require minimal effort on my part, and I only have to be concerned with writing the actual application.

PayPal needs to clean up its act FIRST!

[Alwin Henseler]

With smartphones, PayPal sees a future in which its system can be used to pay at the grocery store, the cleaners, the gas station, and for things like rent and parking meters, he said.

Really? As long as you can't pay your hookers & blackjack with PayPal, it'll be useless.

Then there's a long list of people that have been screwed over by PayPal, and that warn you never to do business with them (especially on the money recipient side). Complaints like this http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/02/07/1830222/Paypal-Reverses-Payments-Made-To-Indians [slashdot.org] keep coming in: http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/02/10/0048246/India-Suspended-From-PayPal-For-At-Least-a-Few-Months [slashdot.org]

And PayPal tries to present itself to users as some sort of bank, but well... it isn't. And from the looks of it, doesn't even want to become one (government oversight and all that crap).

I've only used PayPal on a few occassions to buy stuff abroad, and it worked well for me. But in order for PayPal to become more commonplace, it needs to:

1. Clean up its act, start to behave like a real bank. Preferably: register as one.
2. Remove limitations on where & what for you can use PayPal.
3. Lower their fees to reasonable levels (like: competitive with direct bank -> bank transfers).