PayPal has announced that it plans to
double the number of employees in Asia Pacific from 1,000 currently to
more than 2,000 by the end of the year. The company plans to add more
than 100 new jobs at its international headquarters in Singapore.
âPayPal and China UnionPay Open the Global Marketplace to Chinese
Consumers.â
New jobs will be located at all seven offices in the region including
Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. For its
Singapore business headquarters and development center, PayPal will be
recruiting Singapore-based professionals with expertise in technology,
product development, infrastructure design, risk and engineering.
PayPal processed more than $6 billion of total payment volume* in Asia
Pacific in 2009, an increase of 38 percent from 2008. Since its
establishment in the region in 2006, the company has struck dozens of
strategic partnerships with Asian companies including announcements
today with DBS, Singaporeâs largest bank, and China UnionPay, Chinaâs
bankcard association.
âWhile PayPalâs growth in Asia Pacific to date has largely been driven
by our cross border business, we fully expect the domestic business in
many of our Asian markets to explode in the coming years,â said Farhad
Irani, vice president of PayPal Asia Pacific. âOur success in the region
will continue to rely on partnering with merchants, financial services
companies and local governments to deliver the right services for our
customers.â
Todayâs announcement was made at PayPalâs new international headquarters
in Suntec City, Singaporeâs technology hub in the middle of the nationâs
central business district. PayPalâs international headquarters (PPPL)
represent all of PayPalâs business outside of the USA. Singapore serves
as an excellent operational hub for PayPalâs international operations
due to its economically strategic location, its friendly business
environment, political stability and world-class infrastructure.
Mr. Leo Yip, chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB),
said, âWe are excited that PayPal has chosen Singapore as the center
from which to double its business in Asia. This is another example of
how Singapore plans to stay at the forefront of technology and innovation.â
Opportunity for Developers in APAC
As part of PayPalâs plans to help grow the e-commerce ecosystem across
Asia Pacific, the company also announced that the PayPal mobile payment
software development kit (SDK) will be made available to developers in
the region.
With just a few lines of code, developers can add a checkout button to
accept mobile payments without the need to collect financial information
from customers. The mobile SDK, which will initially support iPhone app
development, will be available in the second quarter of 2010 to
developers in the region.
As part of the launch of the SDK, PayPal president Scott Thompson will
be meeting several of Singaporeâs top Web developers at a roundtable
tomorrow at PayPalâs offices.
* Total Payment Volume numbers at spot rate
About PayPal
PayPal is the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online. The service
allows members to send money without sharing financial information, with
the flexibility to pay using their account balances, bank accounts,
credit cards or promotional financing. With more than 81 million active
accounts in 190 markets and 24 currencies around the world, PayPal
enables global ecommerce. PayPal is an eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) company and is
made up of three leading online payment services: the PayPal global
payment service, the Payflow Gateway and Bill Me Later. The company’s
open payment platform, PayPal X, allows developers to build innovative
payment applications on multiple platforms and devices. More information
about the company can be found at https://www.paypal.com.
