Cyber Drops

PayPal, which is a company of eBay, announced Friday that it plans to open its online payment platform to third-party developers. Till now, PayPal could be used to pay for deals made by its members on eBay.

In a statement, PayPal said its newly launched application programming interfaces (APIs) will allow developers to embed its secure global payment system into their applications and platforms.

In opening up the PayPal platform, developers can now create new ways to send and receive payments for services beyond traditional e-commerce, the statement said.

The global leader in e-commerce, PayPal has more than 75 million active accounts in 19 currencies around the world. It enables its members to send money without sharing financial information.

PayPal also offers them the flexibility of paying from their account balances, bank accounts, credit cards or personal financing.

It has three online payment services: the PayPal global payments platform, the Payflow Gateway company, and Bill Me Later.

According to a recent McKinsey report, the global payments market has the potential to reach $30 trillion.

For over a decade, PayPal has been a secure, global payments network for e-commerce and person-to-person transactions. Globally, it integrates 27 financial networks, 15,000 local banks, 190 markets and 19 currencies.

The company said several developers have already integrated its new APIs as part of a beta programme.

"Until now, developer innovation has been stifled by the barriers payment systems impose," PayPal president Scott Thompson was quoted as saying in the statement.