PayPal mobile payments skyrocket

eBay's electronic payments arm, PayPal, is looking to add as many as “several hundred'' jobs to its Boston operations, Boston.com reports.

This follows news that PayPal is expecting to nearly double what it saw in mobile payments volume in 2011 to nearly $7 billion for 2012, ZDNet states.

By comparison, PayPal reached $4 billion in mobile payments volume last year, far higher than the company's original prediction of $1.5 billion.

Part of the strategy that will likely contribute to an increase in PayPal's mobile payments results include some of its new mobile apps, some of which are in beta testing, that are set to be unveiled this year.

PC Mag says that despite the huge growth in mobile payment volume seen by PayPal, those in the payments industry do not expect the new transaction method to reach ubiquity this year.

A group of mobile payment executives in September claimed consumers will be quicker to embrace mobile payments than merchants, who have been slow to accept such transactions.

However, some merchants have been early adopters. Starbucks, for example, in July last year unveiled a new mobile payment system available in all US stores for BlackBerry and Apple iOS users.