eBay wants to lead online payments sector with the launch of PayPal platform

As the quarter results of eBay showed that its ecommerce business is weakening it plans to focus more on payment services sector and make itself the biggest online payments provider on the Web through its PayPal unit.

eBay is introducing the PayPal platform to developers who want to build applications that use PayPal’s technology, reports the New York Times. eBay CEO John Donahoe said that opening up PayPal platform could transform the online payments marketplace. “No other global payments platform, online or offline, has been able to open up to third-party developers. And the effect on PayPal will be very comparable to the effect on the iPhone — we’ll see the exponential innovation and growth that comes with it as you release the creativity of those developers.”

For example, Research in Motion, which has been testing the new offering during a pilot period, is using PayPal technology to collect payments from BlackBerry users who buy applications in its app store. And Twitpay, a start-up, uses PayPal’s technology to run its service that allows people to send money using Twitter.