McDonald’s is partnering PayPal in a trial in France, with plans to roll-out the innovation within two years
According to Reuters, McDonald’s is testing a mobile payments service featuring PayPal at thirty of its restaurants in France. The report has a McDonald’s spokeswoman confirming the France tests, and saying that a PayPal demonstration at a conference was part of a booth that features “technology coming within the next 24 months or so.”
PayPal is racing against start-up organisation Square Inc and other technology companies to become the mobile payments service of choice as consumers increasingly use smart phones to make purchases in shops, restaurants and other retail locations.
Square Inc struck what could be its most important partnership to date last week when it teamed up with Starbucks Corp, the world’s largest coffee chain.
PayPal, [owned by eBay Inc] has signed up more than 15 retailers, including Home Depot and Office Depot, but adding a partner the size of McDonald’s, with over 30,000 restaurants, would be a big win.
The Apotheosis of Apps
Increasingly, Smart phones are looking as one of the most powerful drivers of innovation of the decade. In terms of impact, the iconification of Apps may one day be seen of itself as a major innovation, while smart-phones will be considered a game-changing alpha innovation for the way business is transacted globally
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I can understand very well why big retailers like McDonald’s are wanting to get into the mobile payment scene. As a small retailer, I wouldn’t mind getting my hand in the pie myself. In the future I plan to get an NFC enabled POS. For now I am reaping the benefits of my mobile POS from mPowa (www.mpowa.com) which has enabled me to process payments anywhere, anytime.