PayPal Reveals Digital Goods Payments, Facebook Integration

Online payments company PayPal announced an upcoming solution designed specifically for microtransactions and digital goods, as well as plans for Facebook to integrate this new platform. With this new solution, consumers using PayPal can purchase digital goods and content from within a publisher's game, music, video, or media site in as few as two clicks. The firm says it's offering the digital goods industry a safe and cost-effective way for sending and receiving micropayments globally. PayPal will introduce this digital payments platform this fall -- a launch that will be accompanied by Facebook integrating the microtransaction payment solution into purchases on its site. Others have also partnered with PayPal, too: Autosport.com, FT.com, GigaOM, Justin.tv, Ooyala, Plimus, Tagged, Tyler Projects, and Ustream. The new solution's fee structure will take a cut of 5 percent plus 5 cents for digital goods and content purchases under $12, which the company claims is "lower than the fees typically charged by payment processors in the digital goods industry." PayPal currently handles online payments for over 90 million active accounts across 190 markets. In 2009, it oversaw $2 billion in total payment volume for digital goods. That amount is likely to be eclipsed in 2010, as it's already reached $1.3 billion for just the first half of this year. "The decision to purchase digital goods and content usually happens on impulse, so the act of paying needs to be as quick as that impulse," says PayPal's global product strategy VP Sam Shrauger. Shrauger continues, "PayPal for digital goods is an ideal solution for game developers, newspapers, bloggers, media companies, and anyone who is looking to monetize premium digital content around the globe."