Originally published February 26 2006
TextPayMe allows people send money by text message
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
TextPayMe lets the user send up to $500 a month, and is currently free of charge. The service works like PayPal; people create online accounts and then link them to their credit card or bank account.
Philip Yuen put these two observations together and came up with TextPayMe to let people send money using text messaging.
While people can now use PayPal through web-enabled cell phones, the company doesn't have an SMS function.
But a recent Craigslist job posting for a business manager for "PayPal Mobile," described as "a dynamic, young 'start-up' business unit within PayPal dedicated to bringing value-added mobile payment services to consumers and merchants," has launched rumors that such an offering may be forthcoming.
Yuen, a former Microsoft program manager, teamed up with his Lockheed systems analyst brother, Gerald, and another Microsoft employee, CJ Huang, to get TextPayMe rolling.
The trio secured funding from startup seed company Y Combinator and launched the TextPayMe beta in mid-December.
TextPayMe works much like PayPal -- users create an online account and link it to a credit card or bank account.
The service is now free, but the company might eventually charge fees for certain transactions, Yuen said.
Combining text messaging and payment sounds like a pretty good idea when you consider 203 million people in the United States use cell phones, according to the CTIA, and 96 million people use PayPal.
Russ Jones, a payment industry consultant with Glenbrook Partners, said the move toward using cell phones for payment is inevitable.
He noticed, however, that TextPayMe's user agreement explicitly gives the company permission to pull users' credit report.
That might scare some people away, and it's a deterrent TextPayMe doesn't need with PayPal potentially nipping at its heels.
Mark Toews, a technical recruiter in Seattle, said he signed up for TextPayMe about a month ago, but only used it once because his friends won't sign up.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml